Service suppliers from Accenture to Wipro and past are on the acquisition march. As Darwinian creatures born to outlive, suppliers have an extended historical past of shopping for what they want. At this time, which means they’re shopping for asset-centric companies to outlive AI disruption and gearing up for the complicated work of AI transformation. We not too long ago revealed a brand new report with our newest evaluation of the acquisitions that 24 main service suppliers have made in 2025 and to this point in 2026. We double click on on Accenture’s offers to showcase its strategic shift to a enterprise mannequin that blends providers and merchandise.
In the previous few years, service suppliers have tilted their acquisition methods in the direction of recurring income and AI transformation readiness. In our evaluate of 97 latest offers by 24 main suppliers, we discovered two developments. The primary pattern is a gentle enlargement into AI transformation providers, together with AI engineering itself, extra information capabilities, coaching providers for workers, and safety and danger service foundations.
Determine 1 Accenture Is The Runaway Chief Of The M&A March To AI Readiness
Suppliers Are Accelerating Their Shift To Asset-Based mostly Enterprise Fashions
The second pattern is suppliers buying companies which have belongings. The CEOs of those main service suppliers loudly proclaim their methods to develop income with out including headcount. To drive this aim, they’re more and more shopping for software program and mental property, not solely billable individuals. This blended enterprise mannequin is the long run in an AI-industrialized service economic system, the place a supplier sells options (for implementation and for operations) and never simply individuals. Each suppliers and expertise execs should shift their sourcing, procurement, and engagement approaches to get the very best consequence. If what you need is a plowed subject, be ready to pay for the tractor, not simply the farmer. Right here’s what the info reveals:
- One in 5 offers is centered on belongings or a mix of belongings and providers. The share of offers that contain a platform or a product is on the rise (see Determine 4). Two thirds of these purchases are solely or principally made for the asset itself; the opposite acquisitions are a mix of belongings and other people. (The remaining are offers primarily for the individuals and providers they ship.) When the acquired firm has this mix of belongings and providers, it usually means they worth and ship options, generally pricing the answer for outcomes somewhat than by the hour of labor. For instance, when McKinsey purchased India-based digital advertising and marketing service supplier ET Medialabs, it gained each a platform and people who it could worth primarily based on the end result of enhancements in advertising and marketing marketing campaign conversion.
- Asset-centric offers divide evenly between platforms and merchandise. The 19 acquisitions since 2025 are evenly divided between platform-centric and product-centric companies. A platform-centric enterprise is one the place the worth comes from providers delivered on high of or utilizing the platform expertise. Of latest offers, see, for instance, Capgemini’s buy of Singapore-based Cloud4C for cloud operations. A product-centric enterprise is one the place the product could also be standalone. Accenture’s buy of Dragos is probably the most pronounced instance, however so is HCL Tech’s buy of HPE Telco Options enterprise for its autonomous networking operations platform.
Determine 2 Suppliers’ Shift To Asset-Based mostly Enterprise Is Accelerating
Accenture Is A Bellwether In The Shift To Product + Folks Enterprise
Accenture has an extended historical past of progress by acquisition, funding inorganic progress of between 1.5% and a couple of% within the acquisition 12 months (see Determine 6). That makes Accenture’s acquisition technique a roadmap for the way it sees the way forward for providers. The providers behemoth not too long ago jacked up its acquisition finances to $9 billion (having quietly raised $5B in debt to decrease its price of capital and assist fund it). With this transfer, it’s clear that Accenture is transferring aggressively to a individuals + merchandise enterprise mannequin.
In a latest earnings report, Accenture CEO Julie Candy put it this manner: “Our acquisitions are a mixture of providers, providers and merchandise, and merchandise.” The said rationale from CFO Angie Park is “increasing the addressable market and shifting towards non-FTE industrial fashions.” The $9B is the capital expression of the Class-A software program pivot: Accenture is shopping for its means out of a headcount-linked income mannequin. As with each service supplier, when the core enterprise monetizes headcount and AI compresses the necessity for individuals, it’s time to purchase software program merchandise and proprietary information with recurring income. The spend is Accenture’s hedge towards its personal disruption.
That is mirrored in Accenture’s latest buy of Dragos, runZero & NetRise for the working expertise safety platform, a pure product enterprise. Accenture intends to include the product into its personal answer set whereas protecting it unbiased as a standalone product. It’s latest buy of community analytics firm Ookla is an entrée into community operations, one other recurring income enterprise.
Purchaser Beware, However Additionally Be Conscious Of The Worth Of Folks + Merchandise
Because the expertise sector matures into a correct provide chain, enterprises must be in search of full-service suppliers that deliver the merchandise and the providers collectively (That is mirrored within the FDE technique of some expertise suppliers as effectively).
Nonetheless, expertise leaders must be conscious of two dangers within the transition to any suppliers’ shift to a individuals plus product enterprise:
- The product, which can previously have been standalone and serviced by many suppliers, may disappear right into a single service supplier’s enterprise, making you captive to them as a sole-source provider, and;
- There’s a probability that the product turns into an funding useless finish, leaving patrons stranded on a product that by no means advances. To mitigate these dangers, ask for product roadmaps, a shopper advisory council, and a few independence to herald an alternate service supplier to work with the product.
What Suppliers’ Acquisition Methods Imply For Know-how Executives
Corporations rely deeply on the suppliers they rent. Forrester’s 2027 finances planning information for expertise executives reveals that 24% of IT budgets in 2026 is devoted to outsourced providers. Which means they need to care about key suppliers’ methods, together with their method to acquisitions and monitor document of success (or quiet failure). Tech execs:
- Ask strategic companions: How will your acquisition technique assist my evolving wants? In your co-innovation companions, this must be an vital and common (not less than annual) a part of the connection enterprise evaluate. You might have wants — possibly a direct want — that the supplier must be listening to and addressing. Make their acquisition technique a part of your vetting course of and annual grasp service settlement evaluate. New management usually indicators a brand new acquisition technique, so get forward of that change.
- Ask specialist suppliers: If you happen to get acquired, what is going to that imply for us? When the information drops that your favourite service supplier has been snapped up by an enormous, the primary response from supply groups is annoyance and concern: they’re comfy with the prevailing relationship and marvel the way it will change. If the acquirer is an current supplier in your secure, ask it straight. If it’s not, ask for an introduction so you possibly can instantly transfer to the entrance of the road to get the straight scoop on the acquirer’s plan. Procurement professionals have two extra obligations: 1) write contracts that shield you towards the supplier being acquired and a couple of) examine any modifications in technique that might have an effect on the validity of the contract.
