Key takeaways:
- Korn Ferry paid roughly 11 times EBITDA for AMS, well above what investors paid for Korn Ferry’s own stock.
- The premium gave the company certainty in the form of multi-year contracts, 14-year client relationships, and recurring revenue.
- There are five traits that move your firm’s multiple, making it easier to grow, even if you never sell.
At the end of March, investors valued Korn Ferry at 6.8 times its trailing EBITDA, according to KPMG Corporate Finance. Three months later, Korn Ferry agreed to buy AMS for roughly 11 times its run-rate EBITDA.
Paying more for someone else’s earnings than the market pays for your own means you’ve found something you can’t build fast enough. For AMS, that something was revenue Korn Ferry could see coming years out. Thousands of employees came with the deal, but the contracts set the price.
Most firms grow by adding billings and client relationships, both of which can walk out the door after a sale. Here’s what staffing firms can learn from Korn Ferry’s example, whether or not a sale is on your calendar.
Korn Ferry paid for contracts it could depend on
Korn Ferry announced the AMS deal at about £850 million, or roughly $1.1 billion in cash and stock. AMS was generating about $650 million in fee revenue and $100 million in adjusted EBITDA. The deal closed on September 1, and we covered it in our Q3 2026 staffing M&A roundup.
That price works out to roughly 11 times AMS’s EBITDA. For comparison, KPMG valued the typical publicly traded HR and staffing firm at 7.8 times EBITDA as of March 31. Korn Ferry paid about 40% above that benchmark.
On its first-quarter earnings call in September, Korn Ferry explained why AMS was worth the premium. CEO Gary Burnison said AMS’s top 10 clients have stayed an average of 14 years. Two-thirds of AMS’s business is recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), which he called “incredibly sticky and recurring.”
CFO Bob Rozek that bout 60% of Korn Ferry’s own backlog turns into revenue within a year. AMS’s backlog runs longer, with roughly 60% landing over the following four years. Rozek also said more than half of AMS’s growth since 2020 came from clients it already had.
The premium purchased certainty
Korn Ferry expects AMS to contribute about $140 million in adjusted EBITDA within a year of closing. On that figure, the multiple drops below 8 times, close to where Korn Ferry itself trades.
So Korn Ferry paid today’s price for earnings it expects next year. A buyer does that only when it trusts the revenue will still be there. AMS brought more than $1.5 billion in fees under existing contracts, which justifies that confidence.
Other deals follow this trend. Capstone Partners found HR and staffing services deals averaged 9.4 times EBITDA from 2022 through early 2025. HR specialties like compensation consulting, background screening, and talent management averaged 17.2 times. The data imply buyers pay more for services built into a client’s operations. Work that has to be resold one order at a time earns less.
Before you calculate this for your own firm, note that AMS is a $650 million business with global enterprise contracts. Its multiple won’t transfer to a mid-size agency, but the logic behind it will.
Five traits that move a staffing firm’s multiple
Every buyer’s diligence list looks a bit different, but five traits stand out. Each one answers the question a buyer cares about most: will this revenue survive the sale?
1. Revenue that renews without the founder in the room
Korn Ferry’s case for AMS rested on contracted backlog. For a mid-size firm, that means master service agreements, managed programs, contracted RPO or project work, and documented repeat orders.
A 15-year relationship with a client’s VP of operations is worth less to a buyer if it lives only in your head. Convert steady repeat business into signed agreements where clients are willing. Some won’t be, and pushing a long-standing account too hard has its own risk. Start with clients who already treat you like a partner.
2. No single client big enough to sink the deal
If one account drives a big share of your gross profit, a buyer sees value that could vanish in one phone call. Expect that risk to show up in the price or the terms.
Concentration can be offset. Burnison said financial services makes up almost half of AMS’s portfolio. Korn Ferry bought it anyway, with 14-year client relationships on the other side of the scale. Track your top-five client share every quarter so you know where you stand.
3. Gross margin that holds quarter to quarter
Steady margin tells a buyer your pricing holds up when demand softens. Big swings raise a harder question about whether you discount to win orders.
AI can help here. The reporting that proves margin stability to a buyer also shows where margin leaks today, by client, desk, and recruiter.
4. Client relationships the firm owns, not the top biller
Rozek credited existing clients with more than half of AMS’s growth. He also said referrals across Korn Ferry’s own businesses have increased from 18% to almost 30% since the firm started measuring them. Both numbers describe relationships that belong to the firm.
If your top biller leaves and three clients follow, a buyer will price that in. Put a second point of contact on every major account, and log client conversations in your CRM.
5. Data a buyer can trust on the first read
Diligence runs on your ATS and CRM data. Messy records slow the process and give a buyer reasons to doubt everything else you’ve shown them.
The same records matter long before any sale. According to Bullhorn’s 2026 GRID report, data quality and security remain obstacles many firms haven’t solved. The data that feed your AI tools is the same data a buyer will test.
A two-year plan that pays off even if you never sell
Spend the first year measuring. Calculate how much revenue sits under contract and what share of gross profit your top five clients drive. Then track how much margin shifts quarter to quarter. Identify which relationships depend on a single person, and audit your ATS and CRM for gaps.
Use the second year to fix what the numbers reveal. Convert your steadiest repeat clients to agreements. Add coverage on accounts tied to one recruiter. Steer new business toward clients that reduce your concentration, and clean your data before you layer more AI on top of it.
All of this competes with billable time, so give each piece an owner and a quarterly check-in. You can start with no sale in sight. A firm with contracted revenue, spread-out clients, and clean data is easier to forecast, finance, and grow. If a buyer does call, you’ll already have the numbers they’ll ask for.
