Markon Solutions — Sterling's federal services platform is rounding into exit window

Sterling Investment Partners has held Markon Solutions for 4.6 years through Fund III (vintage 2018, now 7+ years on the books and approaching the 8-year DPI threshold LPs typically pressure). The Anser Advisory sale to Accenture in August 2023 — the parent vehicle Markon was carved out of, ~$1B+, Houlihan Lokey advised — is the comp the buyer side will price off. Three Sterling-era roll-ups (IntegrateIT 2022, ASEC 2024, Millennium Corporation February 2026) read as deliberate platform-building ahead of a sale. The pattern rhymes with Sterling's playbook on AIMS: build through Fund III, exit when the fund clock matures.

Seller

• Company: Markon Solutions
• HQ: Falls Church, VA
• Sub-sector: Federal services consulting — intelligence, defense, civilian agency program management, systems engineering, cybersecurity
• Headcount: ~280 employees
• Standalone since: August 2023 (spun out of Anser Advisory when Anser was sold to Accenture; Sterling and Markon management retained the federal arm)
• Implied size: ~$100M revenue at typical federal-consulting revenue/EE; ~$15M EBITDA; EV at exit plausibly $150–250M at 10–15x EBITDA federal-services multiples — at the low end of the platform-deal band but well-positioned with the right strategic
• Leadership: Raymond Carney (CEO), Andrew Woodruff (CFO), Drew Thompson (Chief Corporate Development Officer), Scott Thoden (Chief Growth Officer)

Holding PE firm

• Firm: Sterling Investment Partners (Westport, CT)
• Acquired: October 2021 (as part of Anser Advisory) → 4.6-year hold as of May 2026
• Fund: Sterling Investment Partners III (vintage 2018; 7+ years old, approaching the 8-year vintage at which LP-DPI pressure typically intensifies)
• Hold-period band: 4.6 years sits in the 4–7yr exit sweet spot

Fund-level signals supporting near-term exit

1. Sterling Fund V close (Nov 2025, $1.6B oversubscribed past $1.25B target). Sterling is no longer fee-extracting from Fund III; LP attention has rotated to the new vehicle, intensifying DPI pressure on remaining Fund III holdings.
2. Roll-up cadence accelerated under Sterling. Three add-ons in the standalone period: IntegrateIT (2022), ASEC (2024), Millennium Corporation (February 20, 2026). The Millennium acquisition in particular adds federal-civilian agency depth that strengthens the platform sale narrative.
3. The Anser-Accenture comp lives in Sterling memory. Sterling exited Anser at ~$1B+ in August 2023; the same partners now own the federal-services successor. They know what these assets clear at and they know what the IRR looks like when the fund clock cooperates.

Active buyers in federal services

The deal will price off the Anser → Accenture parent comp and against the active strategic-acquirer set. Buyers split into three pools:

• Strategic government-services acquirers (NYSE / NASDAQ). Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI, Leidos, ManTech, SAIC, Maximus, ICF International. Each has been an active acquirer of LMM federal-consulting platforms in the $150–500M range; CACI in particular has done multiple cybersecurity / mission-IT tucks at this size. The two most current cadence data points: CACI closed its $2.6B ARKA Group acquisition March 9, 2026 (all-cash, $800M new debt) — implying a post-close deleveraging window through FY27 in which tuck-ins under ~$300M fit but platforms do not; Booz Allen completed Defy Security April 7, 2026 (cybersecurity tuck) — the small high-value-tuck cadence continues. Both buyers are in a post-close window where a Markon-scale ($150–250M EV) federal-strategy asset reads as the next-up sized fit.
• Accenture Federal Services. The most natural acquirer given the Anser precedent — Accenture already owns the operating playbook on a Sterling-built federal asset. Repeat-buyer thesis is straightforward.
• PE platforms with active federal verticals. Carlyle (Federal Services Industry team), Veritas Capital, Sagewind Capital, Arlington Capital Partners, Godspeed Capital. Sponsor-to-sponsor outcome on a 280-EE platform is plausible if the strategic auction stalls.

The Houlihan Lokey relationship from Anser-Accenture is the most likely sell-side advisor; Anser-Accenture closed at $1B+ in August 2023 and Markon is the smaller successor — the math at $150–250M EV reads as a clean second print on the same playbook.

Key comparable transaction

Accenture → Anser Advisory, August 2023, ~$1B+ (Houlihan Lokey advised Sterling).

• Anser was the federal-services parent Markon was carved out of. Same management lineage, same Sterling sponsor, same advisor relationship.
• The comp anchors price expectations at the senior level of every plausible buyer, and at Sterling itself.

What to watch next

If Houlihan Lokey is named on a Markon process — public sell-side mandate disclosure, banker-reception messaging, or a CIM hitting the federal-services strategic desks — the auction is live. A new add-on under Sterling above the IntegrateIT / ASEC / Millennium scale would re-set the price expectation upward. A continuation-vehicle filing on Markon (Sterling has the XKIG playbook) would mean the auction track is dead and the CV track is live.