CBRE Acquires Pearce Services for ~$1.2B to Accelerate Digital & Power Infrastructure Growth

Global real-estate advisor and investment firm CBRE has entered the infrastructure services sector in a material way through its acquisition of Pearce Services, a specialist in digital and power infrastructure operations and engineering. This move signifies a strategic pivot for CBRE into the mission-critical infrastructure realm - a space where uptime, reliability, and technical depth are paramount.

Deal Summary

• Buyer: CBRE Group, Inc., headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
• Seller: New Mountain Capital, the private-equity investor backing Pearce Services.
• Target: Pearce Services, LLC — based in Paso Robles, California, founded in 1998.
• Transaction Value: ~$1.2 billion in cash, with a contingent earn-out of up to ~$115 million, tied to performance through 2027.
• Business Profile: Pearce delivers design-engineering, maintenance and repair services for critical power & cooling systems (≈34% of 2025 revenue), renewables & energy storage (≈30%), wireless & fibre networks (≈29%) and EV-charging networks (≈7%).
• Scale: Over 4,000 employees across North America and India.
• Strategic Rationale: The acquisition will integrate Pearce into CBRE’s Building Operations & Experience segment. CBRE projects the digital and power infrastructure services business to generate more than $350 million of core EBITDA by 2026 (ex-land-sale gains).

Industry Context

The commercial real-estate services industry is undergoing a structural shift. As traditional office and retail markets face headwinds, growing portions of enterprise real-estate demand are flowing into digital infrastructure, data centres, power resilience, telecom networks, and renewable energy services. Firms that historically focused on leasing, property management, and brokerage are now repositioning to capture the high-growth service-and-maintenance ecosystem surrounding mission-critical assets.

CBRE’s acquisition of Pearce exemplifies this pivot: by buying a specialised services business rather than a property owner, CBRE is leaning into the infrastructure operations stack. The target markets - data centres, EV charging, renewable generation, telecom networks - benefit from secular tailwinds, high technical barriers to entry, recurring service revenue, and strong growth prospects. According to deal commentary, Pearce is projected to generate over $660 million in revenue and more than $90 million in EBITDA by 2026.

Lower-Middle-Market Roll-Up Perspective

While CBRE is a large-cap player, the strategic rationale replicates key themes seen across lower-middle-market roll-up platforms:

1. Control of the value chain: By integrating engineering, maintenance, and operations services, CBRE moves beyond asset brokerage to capture services revenue and margin.
2. Infrastructure as recurring revenue: The acquisition emphasises service contracts, maintenance, and uptime guarantees rather than one-off property deals. This mirrors how PE platforms seek recurring cash-flows in lower-middle markets.
3. High-barrier niche specialization: Pearce operates in engineering-intensive markets (UPS, BESS, cooling, telecom networks) which limits competition and supports scale advantages.
4. Platform with adjacency potential: CBRE projects the Total Addressable Market (TAM) expansion by >$30 billion through this acquisition. In the lower-middle-market context, this means acquiring a base business to roll-up adjacent service lines.
5. Private-equity link: New Mountain Capital’s exit via sale to CBRE reflects how PE-backed businesses in services infrastructure are becoming prime M&A targets for bigger platforms seeking growth anchoring.

Why This Sector Is Attractive for Roll-Ups

• Digital economy demand: Data-centre, telecom, EV charging, and renewable-energy infrastructure are all accelerating, driving outsized demand for technical services and operations platforms.
• Resilience and uptime emphasis: Asset owners increasingly prioritise resilience, continuity, and service model sophistication; operators that deliver high-reliability services command premium valuations.
• CRE convergence with infrastructure: Commercial real-estate firms are broadening from leasing/building models into operations/infrastructure models. This acquisition signals real-estate firms view infrastructure services as a growth vector.
• M&A momentum: The scale and earn-out structure point to a growing trend of large platforms acquiring technical services firms to accelerate ramp-up rather than build organically.

Conclusion

CBRE’s acquisition of Pearce Services highlights a pivotal moment: real-estate services firms are expanding into digital and power infrastructure, and infrastructure services firms are becoming critical M&A targets. For operators or owners in the technical services segment, this reflects rising interest, strategic exits, and premium valuations. For investors, it illustrates how infrastructure-service roll-ups, whether in the lower middle market or at scale, present compelling growth and consolidation dynamics. And for the wider market, this deal underscores how commercial-real-estate services are evolving to meet the demands of a more digital, resilient, and technical built environment.