After a decline in 2024, private equity-fueled merger and acquisition action in the technology advisor (TA) industry is on the upswing this year.

There have been more than 20 private-equity acquisitions of TAs in 2025, following two deals earlier this month. Those deals were Berkshire Partners-backed Upstack’s acquisition of Breakwater Cloud Advisor and Columbia Capital-backed Bluewave Technology Group’s pickup of Streamline Communications.

According to Channel Futures, the top five private equity-backed national TA companies have made 22 announced deals this year, up from 20 all of last year. That 2024 total was down from 27 the previous year.

Bluewave and Upstack went shopping to complement their advisory services.

Bluewave-Streamline

Bluewave’s acquisition was its fifth of the year and 22^nd since 2022. Its latest deal brings it into the Utah market and gives Streamline’s clients access to Bluewave’s deep advisory services across network, cloud, customer experience (CX), and security.

“Streamline’s reputation for integrity and long-standing client relationships mirrors Bluewave’s own values,” Bluewave CEO and founder Seth Penland said. “By combining their deep client relationships with Bluewave’s broad solution advisory capabilities, we are strengthening our ability to guide clients through technology modernization and help them achieve their goals with confidence.”

“I’m proud of what we’ve built since 2005,” Streamline founder Doug Olsen said. “Our focus has always been on trusted relationships, and Bluewave is the right partner to carry that legacy forward while bringing our clients new opportunities to grow and innovate.”

Breakwater-Upstack

Upstack has now made 37 announced deals, but only six in the past two years. In Breakwater, it added a fast-growing CX consulting firm based in Vancouver, Wash. Breakwater’s CX business will complement Upstack’s advisory expertise in AI-driven CX solutions.

Breakwater founders Brendan Paulin and Andrew Millard and business development director Stars Toups will join Upstack. Together with Upstack partner Michael Leonardi and Upstack director of CX advisor services Adam Gottfried, they will form an advisory service division around contact center modernization, AI-driven automation and enterprise customer experience transformation.

“This acquisition represents a doubling down on Upstack’s investment in CX and AI,” Leonardi said. “Bringing together Breakwater’s expertise with Upstack’s proprietary technology and scale positions us to deliver powerful, data-driven results for clients.”

“Joining UPSTACK lets us keep doing what we do best—help customers innovate—while gaining access to resources, data and operational scale that take our impact to the next level,” Paulin said.

“We’ve worked closely with UPSTACK’s CX leaders from day one and we’ve seen the culture and vision up close,” Millard added. “This move gives our clients expanded support and gives us a bigger platform to grow with them.”

We’ll watch the TA space closely to see if more deals closes by the end of 2025.