Before a business buys a competitor, it needs to know that all the assets listed in the M&A agreement work as advertised. That’s easier said than done when the company being acquired is an internet provider. Carriers have many thousands of miles’ worth of fiber-optic cables spanning multiple regions. To navigate the complexity of internet infrastructure, many telecommunications investors bring in technical due diligence firms like New York-based BSP. Boardroom Insight caught up with BSP co-founder and principal David Strauss this week to get a closer look at the consultancy’s market. Plus, news from NOVUS Media, zeb and Thoughtworks.

Technical infrastructure hires. BSP kicked off the year by announcing that it had recruited Joachim Sonne, the former managing director of J.P. Morgan’s EMEA TMT advisory group. He is coming aboard alongside data center executives Rob Moser and Tom Drouillard. The hires follow a year in which BSP’s revenue rose by 77%. According to the firm, one of the main drivers behind that increase was heightened demand for its fiber network due diligence services. Much of the demand came from U.S. clients, but BSP says that there’s also a growing market in Europe.

“Demand for fiber network due diligence in Europe is being driven by a shift in market conditions,” Strauss told Boardroom Insight. “There’s been a move from a rapid build phase into a build-to-operate and refinance phase. Now more than ever, investors and lenders require independent validation of execution risks including the cost-to-connect and install capacity.”

Strauss says that market consolidation is another demand driver. “Overbuild and overlapping footprints are pushing M&A, roll-ups, and restructurings, all of which require granular technical due diligence and integration feasibility evaluation.”

Investors look at a long list of factors when deciding how to value a fiber optic network. There are technical parameters such as capacity, scalability and uptime. Then there are the financial considerations. For example, a private equity firm that plans to modernize a legacy network might need information on the cost of making upgrades.

“Across Europe, there are differences with more mature markets focused on monetization and optimization while less mature markets are focused on build execution,” Strauss explained. “Overall, the demand for technical due diligence is growing, both in terms of frequency and depth of analysis.”

A technology consultancy turns to the logistics sector for talent. Delaware-based zeb has more than 1,500 employees who help clients with tasks such as setting up Snowflake-powered data analytics environments. Last week, the company appointed logistics sector veteran Dave Broering as chief revenue officer. The executive joined zeb from NFI Industries, a multibillion-dollar provider of supply chain services. Broering is no stranger to the tech industry: he is an advisor to several venture-backed startups that provide software for logistics companies. 

NOVUS Media names a new CEO. Libby Morgan is joining the ad agency following a stint as the chief strategy officer at MERGE, a Chicago-based rival. One of Novus’ specialties is planning hyperlocal marketing campaigns. For example, a regional restaurant chain could hire the agency to run ads tailored to the cities in which it operates. NOVUS says that its campaigns leverage not only the usual digital platforms but also traditional channels such as local radio stations.

AI-driven job creation. LLMs’ impact on the job market is usually discussed in the context of the repetitive manual work that they are expected to automate. A recent study from Thoughtworks, a large technology consultancy, looked at a different aspect of the AI boom. It hired a research firm to poll 3,500 executives about the technology’s effects on hiring. According to Thoughtworks, 36% of U.S. respondents said that “human AI collaboration” is driving a net increase in roles. That percentage was even higher in certain other markets.

Thoughtworks’ study also contains other new data points about the enterprise AI landscape. The firm found that 27% of global executives expect the technology to deliver up to 10% revenue growth for their companies in 2026. Those numbers increase significantly on longer time scales. According to the study, nearly half the world’s business leaders expect AI to boost their firms’ revenue by at least 15% in the next decade. 

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