An MSP investment group inspired by Warren Buffet’s decentralised investment approach has made its largest UK acquisition to date.
Evergreen yesterday announced that its Pine Services Group holding company has snapped up £40m-revenue Datel, which styles itself as the UK’s largest Sage partner.
Sprucing up channel M&A
Evergreen’s Pine and Lyra Technology holding companies are designed to act as “long-term homes” for MSPs and ERP software resellers, respectively.
The US-based outfit recently revealed it made 47 acquisitions in 2025, 33 of which were MSPs.
Some 16 of these came in Q4, making it its busiest quarter ever.
Evergreen’s founders Jeff Totten and Ramsey Sahyoun were inspired to launch the venture after attending Warren Buffet’s annual meeting in 2017.
Mimicking the playbook of Buffet in the SMB tech space, Evergreen claims to operate a decentralised “buy-and-hold” model when it comes to M&A.
Its Lyra brand snapped up a string of UK MSPs between 2023 and 2025, including The Final Step, Digital Origin, CMS Group, Certum, Computing Information Systems, Optimising IT and IT Builder.
Pine’s UK deals have occurred more recently – it pounced on ERP speciailsts Eureka Solutions and Inixion towards the end of 2025.
Evergreen’s UK subsidiary, ‘UK MSP Holdco’, turned over £15.5m in the 16-month period ending 31 December 2024.
“It doesn’t change who we are”
Warrington-based Datel saw revenues rise 8% to £40.6m in its fiscal 2025, enough to rank it 120th in Oxygen 250 2026.
The acquisition will see Datel founder and chairman Alan Simpson step down after more than 40 years in the hotseat, with Stuart Morland assuming the role of CEO.
“I’m thrilled that our commitment to holding our companies forever and to operating them independently ultimately led to Alan choosing Evergreen as the home for his business, and we plan to deliver on those commitments for decades to come,” stated Ramsey Sahyoun, Head of M&A at Evergreen.
The deal “doesn’t change who we are”, Morland added.
“The new ownership brings investment, expertise, and support that will help us continue to grow, innovate, and deliver value to our customers and partners,” he said.
