What happens when you acquire a Microsoft Dynamics or NetSuite Partner and then the key talent hits the door?
ChannelE2E’s Microsoft Dynamics partner tracker had 7 deals on the board through May, and the pace has not slowed since.
Velosio picked up Domain 6 in June, then Kopis and Acuitas in July. Grant Thornton, backed by New Mountain Capital, bought MCA Connect in May.
45% of partners in this channel have under 50 employees, which is exactly why the mid-market keeps getting bought.
The letter of intent covers revenue, backlog, customer concentration, working capital, the earnout, and non-competes on the 2 or 3 founders.
What it does not cover is the senior architect who has been the key “go-to” person on the 5 largest accounts for the last 4 years, who has no equity, no earnout, and no particular reason to stay.
In a manufacturing purchase, you buy a plant, and the plant is still there in the morning.
In an ERP services deal, the revenue is a group of people, and every one of them is free to take a different job on Monday.
Post-close attrition is not decided in the resignation letter. It gets decided months earlier, the first time somebody senior takes a recruiter’s call and finds out what they are actually worth right now.
None of that shows up anywhere until the notice lands on a desk.
Typically, the people who start taking those calls after an announcement are never the ones you were quietly hoping might move on. Of course….
The retention conversation that matters is not the one with the founders; they already have their money and a schedule for the rest of it. Instead, it’s the conversation with the 10% of the delivery organization those founders have been quietly depending on, and it belongs before the announcement, not after the first resignation.
For anyone who has bought or sold a practice in this channel, when did you first sit down with the people you could not afford to lose, before the announcement or after?
ChannelE2E’s Microsoft Dynamics partner tracker had 7 deals on the board through May, and the pace has not slowed since.
Velosio picked up Domain 6 in June, then Kopis and Acuitas in July. Grant Thornton, backed by New Mountain Capital, bought MCA Connect in May.
45% of partners in this channel have under 50 employees, which is exactly why the mid-market keeps getting bought.
The letter of intent covers revenue, backlog, customer concentration, working capital, the earnout, and non-competes on the 2 or 3 founders.
What it does not cover is the senior architect who has been the key “go-to” person on the 5 largest accounts for the last 4 years, who has no equity, no earnout, and no particular reason to stay.
In a manufacturing purchase, you buy a plant, and the plant is still there in the morning.
In an ERP services deal, the revenue is a group of people, and every one of them is free to take a different job on Monday.
Post-close attrition is not decided in the resignation letter. It gets decided months earlier, the first time somebody senior takes a recruiter’s call and finds out what they are actually worth right now.
None of that shows up anywhere until the notice lands on a desk.
Typically, the people who start taking those calls after an announcement are never the ones you were quietly hoping might move on. Of course….
The retention conversation that matters is not the one with the founders; they already have their money and a schedule for the rest of it. Instead, it’s the conversation with the 10% of the delivery organization those founders have been quietly depending on, and it belongs before the announcement, not after the first resignation.
For anyone who has bought or sold a practice in this channel, when did you first sit down with the people you could not afford to lose, before the announcement or after?
Sources: ChannelE2E, “M&A List: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Cloud Partner Mergers, Acquisitions and Investments” · DynamicsFocus, “2025 set the record for Microsoft Dynamics Partner M&A, 2026 is carrying that pace forward”
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