Who is buying engineering firms?
20 named consolidator platforms are actively acquiring US engineering businesses; 14 of them are private-equity-backed. Typical engineering acquisitions price at 5.5x-7.5x EBITDA (2.5x-3x SDE for smaller owner-operated businesses), per published ranges from ROG + Partners, MNP Engineering & Construction Quarterly Update Q1 2026 and others. The most recent named acquisition tracked on this page closed in September 2026.
Why engineering firms are consolidating
- •U.S. engineering and design services revenue grew 5.3% to $459 billion in 2024, and the industry directly employed nearly 1.7 million workers, according to the ACEC Research Institute.
- •464 acquisitions of U.S. design and environmental consulting firms were announced in 2024, the second-most on record after 2022's 487, and the ten most acquisitive firms accounted for 18% of that consolidation, according to Morrissey Goodale.
- •Private-equity buyers led 138 of the 361 AEC services deals in 2025, or 38.3%, up from 22.3% (49 deals) in 2018, according to Capstone Partners.
- •42% of 2025 acquisitions involved PE-backed acquirers or outright recapitalizations, according to Morrissey Goodale.
- •Employee-owned buyers' share of U.S. design and environmental firm deals fell from 80% in 2016 to 50% in 2024, and through mid-September 2025 PE and PE-backed acquirers made 47% of deals against 45% for employee-owned firms, according to Morrissey Goodale writing in ACEC's Engineering Inc.
- •About 20% of ENR's Top 250 design firms and 12% of the full ENR 500 have some form of private-equity investment, according to ROG + Partners.
The platforms consolidating engineering firms
The named groups acquiring US engineering businesses, with their current owner and a source for each. Most grow through individual partnerships that are not separately disclosed; where a platform publishes named deals, recent ones are listed.
| Acquirer | Owner / backer | Type | Headquarters | Latest named deal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trilon Group | Alpine Investors | Private equity | Denver, CO | Jun 2025 |
| ZenaTech | Public (Nasdaq: ZENA) | Strategic / public | Toronto, ON | Sep 2026 |
| Verdantas | Sterling Investment Partners | Private equity | Tampa, FL | Aug 2026 |
| Salas O'Brien | Employees (super-majority, direct share ownership); Blackstone (minority growth investment, Jan 2024) | Private equity | Irvine, CA | Jul 2026 |
| IMEG | Employee-owned (ESOP) | Employee-owned (ESOP) | Rock Island, IL | Jul 2026 |
| LJA Engineering | Employee-owned (ESOP) | Employee-owned (ESOP) | Houston, TX | Apr 2026 |
| Bowman Consulting Group | Public (Nasdaq: BWMN); under definitive agreement to be acquired by Bernhard Capital Partners | Strategic / public | Reston, VA | Dec 2025 |
| Atwell | Advent International (with management) | Private equity | Southfield, MI | Jul 2026 |
| Pape-Dawson | Palm Beach Capital | Private equity | San Antonio, TX | Mar 2026 |
| Trinity Consultants | Oak Hill Capital (current); Veritas Capital has agreed to acquire control, with Oak Hill reinvesting as a minority shareholder | Private equity | Dallas, TX | Aug 2026 |
| AKS Engineering & Forestry | Align Capital Partners | Private equity | Tualatin, OR | May 2026 |
| Colliers Engineering & Design | Colliers International Group (Nasdaq/TSX: CIGI) | Strategic / public | Holmdel, NJ | Aug 2026 |
| Ardurra | Littlejohn & Co. (with management and employees) | Private equity | Miami, FL | Jun 2026 |
| CHA | H.I.G. Capital | Private equity | Albany, NY | Sep 2025 |
| SAM Companies | New Mountain Capital | Private equity | Austin, TX | May 2026 |
| Galloway & Company | Kelso & Company and ARA Services Partners | Private equity | Denver, CO | Sep 2026 |
| PRIME AE Group | Platform Holdings Capital (successor to NewHold Enterprises) | Private equity | Not confirmed | Feb 2026 |
| WSP Global | Public (TSX: WSP) | Strategic / public | Montreal, QC | Feb 2026 |
| WSB | GHK Capital Partners | Private equity | Minneapolis, MN | Sep 2026 |
| MacKay | SkyKnight Capital | Private equity | Vancouver, WA | Jul 2026 |
Trilon Group
Private equity- Owner
- Alpine Investors
- Headquarters
- Denver, CO
- Scale
- 5,750 employees across 185 offices (2025, per Trilon's timeline)
Runs as a family of partner firms that keep their own brands. Morrissey Goodale counted 12 acquisitions in 2024 in its Jan 2025 list and 13 in its Nov 2025 check-in. Trilon's own timeline shows 2 platform partners plus 5 add-ons in 2025. In 2026 CME, Churchill and Naik merged to form Artheon.
ZenaTech
Strategic / public- Owner
- Public (Nasdaq: ZENA)
- Headquarters
- Toronto, ON
- Scale
- 29 Drone as a Service acquisitions to date (Sep 2026)
A Nasdaq-listed drone and AI company that buys land-surveying firms for its Drone as a Service network. It is not a traditional engineering consolidator. Morrissey Goodale counted 16 acquisitions in 2025 and gave it the 2026 Most Prolific and Proficient Acquirer Award. Morrissey Goodale and the office address in ZenaTech's releases give Toronto as HQ, but the releases are datelined Vancouver, BC.
Verdantas
Private equity- Owner
- Sterling Investment Partners
- Headquarters
- Tampa, FL
- Scale
- over 2,540 professionals nationwide (Jul 2026)
Sterling bought a majority stake from Round Table Capital Partners in May 2024. Morrissey Goodale counted 11 acquisitions in 2025 and 10 in 2024.
Salas O'Brien
Private equity- Owner
- Employees (super-majority, direct share ownership); Blackstone (minority growth investment, Jan 2024)
- Headquarters
- Irvine, CA
- Scale
- approaching 5,000 employees (Jan 2026)
Blackstone holds a minority stake only, and employees remain super-majority owners. Carta says the firm switched from an ESOP to direct employee ownership when it joined Carta (around 2020), so it is not typed as an ESOP. Morrissey Goodale counted nine acquisitions in 2025.
IMEG
Employee-owned (ESOP)- Owner
- Employee-owned (ESOP)
- Headquarters
- Rock Island, IL
- Scale
- more than 100 offices and more than 3,300 team members (Jul 2026)
Morrissey Goodale counted 12 acquisitions in 2024. No private-equity investment was found.
LJA Engineering
Employee-owned (ESOP)- Owner
- Employee-owned (ESOP)
- Headquarters
- Houston, TX
- Scale
- more than 3,000 employee-owners (2025)
Morrissey Goodale counted 8 acquisitions in 2025 (in AZ, FL, NC and TX) and 10 in 2024. The 2025 targets are not named in the sources read.
Bowman Consulting Group
Strategic / public- Owner
- Public (Nasdaq: BWMN); under definitive agreement to be acquired by Bernhard Capital Partners
- Headquarters
- Reston, VA
- Scale
- over 2,500 employees and 100 offices throughout the U.S. (Aug 2026)
Pending take-private: on Aug 10, 2026, Bernhard agreed to pay $43 a share. The go-shop period ended Sep 13, 2026. Closing is expected in Q4 2026 or Q1 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. Capstone counted six Bowman transactions in 2025.
Atwell
Private equity- Owner
- Advent International (with management)
- Headquarters
- Southfield, MI
- Scale
- 2,000 professionals (Mar 2026)
Recent ownership change. Advent announced the investment on Mar 27, 2026 and expected it to close in Q2 2026. Advent's current-portfolio page lists Atwell as an April 2026 investment, but no closing press release was found. Morrissey Goodale described Atwell as privately held in Jan 2025. It counted seven acquisitions in 2025, two of them through Atwell's subsidiary RVi.
Pape-Dawson
Private equity- Owner
- Palm Beach Capital
- Headquarters
- San Antonio, TX
- Scale
- more than 2,150 employees across 46 offices in 10 states (Jul 2026)
Morrissey Goodale (Jan 2026) also calls it backed by Palm Beach Capital, and counted six acquisitions in 2025. No 2025-2026 sale was found.
Trinity Consultants
Private equity- Owner
- Oak Hill Capital (current); Veritas Capital has agreed to acquire control, with Oak Hill reinvesting as a minority shareholder
- Headquarters
- Dallas, TX
- Scale
- Not disclosed (serves more than 10,000 clients worldwide)
Pending sale: the Veritas deal was announced Aug 5, 2026 and is expected to close by Q4 2026. Trinity is an environmental and engineering consultancy that also buys MEP engineering firms. Management and employees keep a meaningful stake. Morrissey Goodale counted 8 acquisitions in 2025.
AKS Engineering & Forestry
Private equity- Owner
- Align Capital Partners
- Headquarters
- Tualatin, OR
- Scale
- 15 offices in Oregon, Arizona, Nevada and Washington (Jul 2026, Portland Business Journal)
Align completed the recapitalization in Feb 2025, and management and employees kept a significant stake. Morrissey Goodale counts six add-ons since then. AKS announced Lanktree as a partnership effective May 1, 2026.
Colliers Engineering & Design
Strategic / public- Owner
- Colliers International Group (Nasdaq/TSX: CIGI)
- Headquarters
- Holmdel, NJ
- Scale
- Not disclosed
Under Colliers' partnership model, the senior leaders of acquired firms become significant shareholders in Colliers Engineering. The FSB deal was expected to close in Q2 2026, but no closing announcement was found.
Ardurra
Private equity- Owner
- Littlejohn & Co. (with management and employees)
- Headquarters
- Miami, FL
- Scale
- more than 2,600 employees across more than 120 offices nationwide (Jun 2026)
Owned by Littlejohn since Feb 2023. Won Morrissey Goodale's 2025 M&A Best Practices Award.
CHA
Private equity- Owner
- H.I.G. Capital
- Headquarters
- Albany, NY
- Scale
- over 2,100 employees and over 50 offices throughout the U.S. and Canada (Apr 2026)
H.I.G. bought CHA from First Reserve in Jan 2024. CHA made three acquisitions in 2025.
SAM Companies
Private equity- Owner
- New Mountain Capital
- Headquarters
- Austin, TX
- Scale
- Not disclosed (Peak Rock says SAM added 25 offices and completed 19 acquisitions under its ownership since 2021)
Recent ownership change: Peak Rock announced the sale to New Mountain on Jul 1, 2026, so the add-ons listed here were made under Peak Rock. SAM does geospatial, surveying and inspection work, mainly for utilities.
Galloway & Company
Private equity- Owner
- Kelso & Company and ARA Services Partners
- Headquarters
- Denver, CO
- Scale
- Not disclosed
Kelso invested alongside ARA Services Partners, an independent sponsor, and employees kept significant ownership. Galloway is an architecture and engineering firm, not engineering-only. Morrissey Goodale lists its HQ as Greenwood Village, CO, while Galloway says it is based in Denver.
PRIME AE Group
Private equity- Owner
- Platform Holdings Capital (successor to NewHold Enterprises)
- Headquarters
- Not confirmed
- Scale
- more than 600 employees in 25 offices across 10 states (Feb 2026)
NewHold invested in Dec 2019, and Platform Holdings is NewHold's successor firm. HQ is unconfirmed: past releases are datelined Jacksonville, FL and Baltimore, MD.
WSP Global
Strategic / public- Owner
- Public (TSX: WSP)
- Headquarters
- Montreal, QC
- Scale
- approximately 83,000 professionals in over 50 countries
Buys large U.S. firms rather than small add-ons. WSP says the TRC deal made it the largest engineering and design firm in the U.S. by revenue.
WSB
Private equity- Owner
- GHK Capital Partners
- Headquarters
- Minneapolis, MN
- Scale
- more than 50 offices with more than 1,800 employees nationwide (Sep 2026)
WSB called Poly its tenth acquisition in three years. GHK's investment date was not found, so its Oct 2025 CAS deal is left out of the typed deals list.
MacKay
Private equity- Owner
- SkyKnight Capital
- Headquarters
- Vancouver, WA
- Scale
- approximately 340 employees across the Pacific Northwest, Southwest and Midwest (Feb 2026)
Formerly MacKay Sposito, renamed MacKay in 2026. The size of SkyKnight's stake was not disclosed. The partnership also brought in a broader employee stock program. Medium confidence on scale: the headcount predates the Apr-Jul 2026 deals.
Selling in your state?
What engineering businesses sell for, who is buying, and how many there are, state by state.
Frequently asked
What multiple could my engineering firm sell for?
Mostly it depends on size. Architecture and engineering firms sold on BizBuySell from 2021 to 2025 went for a median 2.48x seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), with the middle half between 1.83x and 3.15x. Peak Business Valuation puts engineering firms at 2.48x-3.04x SDE. Larger firms priced on EBITDA get more. ROG + Partners reports a 5.52x median and a 7.50x upper quartile for engineering-only firms since 2022. GF Data (via MNP) shows private-equity deals for engineering services at 5.6x for $10M-$25M of enterprise value, rising to 7.5x at $50M-$100M.
How much of the buying is private equity?
A growing share. Capstone Partners counted 138 private-equity-led AEC deals in 2025, 38.3% of the total, up from 22.3% in 2018. Morrissey Goodale found that 42% of 2025 acquisitions involved PE-backed acquirers or recapitalizations. ROG + Partners estimates that about 20% of ENR's Top 250 design firms have some PE investment.
Who are the most active acquirers right now?
Morrissey Goodale's 2025 tally was led by ZenaTech (16 acquisitions, mostly land surveyors), Verdantas (11), Salas O'Brien (9), Trinity Consultants and LJA Engineering (8 each), and Atwell (7). In 2024, Trilon Group and IMEG led with 12 each. In 2026, Verdantas, IMEG, Pape-Dawson, Ardurra, WSB, MacKay and Galloway have each announced several deals.
What raises or lowers the price a buyer will pay?
Stonemill Partners says multiples are higher for firms with EBITDA growth above 10% a year, a diversified client base, leadership beyond the founder, and recurring government or infrastructure work. Firms that depend on a single leader, a handful of clients or volatile end markets often trade at 20-30% discounts. Zweig Group adds that hard backlog remains a key valuation driver and that buyers scrutinize contract profitability and WIP.
Do I have to sell to private equity?
No. Employee-owned firms still made 50% of the deals Morrissey Goodale tracked in 2024. Through mid-September 2025 they made 45%, against 47% for PE and PE-backed buyers and 8% for public companies. IMEG and LJA Engineering, two of the busiest acquirers, are ESOP-owned. Public companies such as Colliers, WSP and ZenaTech also buy firms. Bowman is public too, but it has agreed to be taken private by Bernhard Capital Partners.
How big are the firms that sell?
Mostly small. Morrissey Goodale reports that the median seller's size jumped 43% in 2024 and held at about $4.0 million through the first three quarters of 2025. On BizBuySell, the median architecture and engineering firm sold for $742,000, on median revenue of $1.09 million and median owner earnings of $332,171.
Methodology & sources
Platforms and deals come from Morrissey Goodale's weekly AE M&A updates and Movers and Shakers lists, Capstone Partners' AEC report, ACEC's Engineering Inc., and press releases from acquirers, sponsors and SEC filings. The adversarial check in October 2026 re-read every cited page in full: 77 pages fetched and read, plus excerpts from about 45 search results. Each platform's current owner was re-checked for 2025-2026 sales, recaps and pending deals. Each target's location is recorded exactly as its source states it, with state only where no city is given and left blank where the cited source gives none.
Multiple sources
- ROG + Partners, A/E Business Valuation and M&A Transaction Study (Feb 2025) ↗
- MNP Engineering & Construction Quarterly Update Q1 2026 (GF Data) ↗
- Stonemill Partners, Navigating the Next Decade (Sep 2025) ↗
- BizBuySell, Architecture & Engineering Business Valuation Benchmarks ↗
- Peak Business Valuation, Engineering Firm Valuation Multiples ↗
- Zweig Group, 2025 Valuation Report of AEC Firms (Mar 2025) ↗
Market sources
- ACEC Research Institute, 2025 Economic Assessment & Forecast ↗
- Morrissey Goodale, Ten Movers and Shakers to Watch in 2025 ↗
- Capstone Partners, AEC Services Sector M&A Update ↗
- Morrissey Goodale, Ten Movers and Shakers to Watch in 2026 ↗
- ACEC Engineering Inc. (Morrissey Goodale), Big Buyers and Sellers Reshape Industry M&A (Nov 2025) ↗
- ROG + Partners, A/E Business Valuation and M&A Transaction Study (Feb 2025) ↗
Last updated October 6, 2026. Platform ownership last verified October 6, 2026. Ownership in this sector changes frequently; figures reflect the most recent public sources available and are not investment, legal, or tax advice.
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