Merge your partner account with another partner account

Appropriate roles: Account admin

Two or more companies that are active Microsoft partners and have global and location accounts in Partner Center; can use the Partner Center account merge functionality when one organization merges with or acquires another. A merger is when two or more partners combine their businesses into one new entity. An acquisition is when one partner purchases another partner's business or a part of it and create a separate company.

The account merge in Partner Center enables centralized management of the legal profile and location accounts in Partner Center, while preserving tenant boundaries for user management, retaining existing user access and role assignments, and ensuring business continuity for billing, incentives, and other partner benefits.

Once performed, a merge cannot be reversed.

Learn what happens when two partners elect to merge their Partner Center accounts

Here's what to expect when two partners merge their accounts.

• Each organization has a partner global account (PGA) and one or more partner location accounts (PLA) under the PGA with partner identity (also known as Partner ID/MPN). Example: Organization 1 has global account 100 with locations 101, 102. Organization 2 has global account 200 with locations 201, 202, 203
• Only user with Account admin role can initiate an account merge. Partner organization initiating the merger (let's says PGA with MPN100), invites the organization to be merged or acquired (PGA with MPN200).
• After the invited organization has accepted the Merge invite, its PGA becomes a location of the initiating company and the locations move under PGA of the initiating organization. Example: Organization 1 – global account 100 with locations 101, 102, 200, 201, 202, 203. Organization 2’s global account becomes a location under Organization 1. Location accounts partner identity (Partner IDs formerly known as MPN IDs) remains unchanged.

Here's a diagram that shows a view of merged accounts:

Impact on tenants vs Partner Center account management

• This account merger does not imply tenant merger. Tenant isolation remains enforced. In the above example: before merger, Tenant 1 manages Organization 1 accounts and Tenant 2 manages Organization 2 accounts. Post-account merger, Tenants 1 and 2 can manage organization 1's accounts i.e. PGA 100 and PLAs 101, 102, 200, 201, 202, 203. Account management here implies managing legal profile, location management, agreement, new program enrollment etc. in Partner Center. The account merger does not apply to CSP-only tenants.

Impact on users access and user management

• Post-merge users from both organizations will have their roles intact.
• Users who are set up to have organization-level roles will see and can perform activities related to all locations (including the newly moved locations).Example: Account admin, User management admin or Referral Admin set for full organization from tenant/organization 1 can perform their role-specific duties on all locations 101, 102, 200, 201, 202, 203. Same extends to such roles from tenant/organization 2.
• Users who are set up to have location-level roles will see and can perform activities related to that location only. Example: Incentive user who is assigned to one location account 101, can only view earnings for that location.
• Since tenant boundaries are strictly maintained, users from tenant 1 wont be able to see or manage users from tenant 2 and vice versa. Example: User management admin in tenant 1 can assign roles to any user in tenant 1 at location-level or organization-level i.e. for 101, 102, 200, 201, 202, 203. Same applies to User management admin in tenant 2.
• Cross-tenant access will require explicit user invitation at the tenant-level (via Entra or partner Center) and subsequent Partner Center role assignment.

Business continuity

In summary, Account merger mainly rolls up the Microsoft AI Cloud program benefits and memberships.

• Membership and Benefits - Post account merger, all existing benefits, designations, and solution areas are retained, with the merged organization receiving consolidated solution areas from both companies and using the most recent renewal dates. All benefit bundles, associations, and specializations continue unaffected until renewal, when standard renewal rules apply. Details outlined in the next section.
• Incentives - Since incentives enrollment is at location level, incentives will continue being computed for each enrolled location and wont change because of merger.
• Referrals - The published offers and co-sell pipeline data associated with both companies are preserved.
• Billing, Pricing and Transact - For CSP, if the eligibility is based on Partner Location account all associated activities like Billing, Pricing and Transact will continue happening at location level and wont change because of merger.

Understand the effects on programs and benefits when partners elect to merge accounts

When partners elect to merge accounts, they can expect:

• All existing Solution areas, purchases (such as Solutions Partner designation), and associated benefits are retained during consolidation. This retention means they continue to use both bundles of benefits if there's an immediate merger, since they paid for or acquired the benefits separately.
• The most recent renewal date for Microsoft Action Pack is retained after the merger. For example, if the Action Pack renewal date is June 2020 for company 1 October 2020 for company 2, Microsoft uses the October 2020 date as the renewal date for the merged company.
• Each account retains its Action Pack and/or Solutions Partner benefits and/or legacy gold/silver benefits during the account merger and until the next renewal. At renewal, standard Action Pack and Solutions Partner designation renewal rules apply.
• Both companies have different solution area designations, so the acquiring partner is awarded with the consolidated solution areas. If Company A is acquiring company B, and company A has two solution areas, company B has two different solution areas, then the merging company A (B got merged into A) has four solution areas.
• Highest anniversary date for Microsoft Solutions Partner designation will be retained after the merger, provided both the Partners got Solutions Partner badges. (See the table below the Business rules)
• The acquiring account has all the solution areas that they were qualified for in either of the accounts after the two accounts merge. The benefit bundles for the company that is being acquired are migrated to the acquirer without any change in the expiration date of benefits.
• Benefits that are included with Solutions Partner attainment are provisioned for the partner global account upon renewal. Refer to the detailed list of scenarios shown in the next section for the possible scenarios during renewal.
• All benefits are subject to the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Terms of Participation. (For example, an activated Office 365 E3 token is functional for 12 months after activation.) After a token is activated for licenses on a tenant, those licenses can't be moved to another tenant.
• The MCP ID associations for both companies are retained and associated with the PGA Partner ID (formerly MPN ID).
• The go-to-market and technical benefits are offered as competency core benefits.
• Your benefits are retained until renewal if your company is in the Azure Expert MSP program.
• Any advanced specializations your company earned are retained across both accounts.
• Any software assurance vouchers are retained across both accounts.

Best practices before and after account merge

• Before merger, activate all the benefits you intend to use, for both accounts, before merging and subsequent membership renewal date. Refer to the table in next section.
• Before and during merger, avoid edits to the organization accounts, users and roles of both companies.
• After the merger, we recommend that you check your bank, and tax information to ensure accuracy.

Review various possible scenarios for benefits availability after accounts merge

* Be sure to activate all the benefits you intend to use, for both accounts, before merging and your subsequent membership renewal date.

Invite a company to merge their Partner Center account with your Partner Center account

To invite a company to merge their Partner Center account with yours, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center as an Account admin for your company and select the Settings (gear) icon.

2. Select the Account settings workspace.

3. Select Account merge.

4. Enter the PartnerID (formerly MPN ID) in the Partner profile of the account that you want to invite to merge with you.

   You must use the partner global PartnerID (formerly MPN ID). You can't use a location PartnerID (formerly MPN ID).

5. Select Merge.

   An invitation to merge is sent to the partner company Global admin.

   • If the company accepts your invitation, you can continue the account merger within Partner Center.
   • If the company rejects your invitation, they can explain why they rejected the request.

A list of all your account mergers is available in Merge history.

Example of two companies merging accounts

Here's an example of two companies that chose to merge their accounts.

Before the merger

• Contoso, Ltd. has:

  • A global PartnerID of 1111111.
  • A subordinate location PartnerID of 2222222.
  • A Microsoft Entra tenant of @contoso.com.
  • A Solutions Partner designation that expires on October 1, 2024.

• Fabrikam, Inc. has:

  • A global PartnerID of 3333333.
  • Two subordinate location PartnerIDs of 4444444 and 5555555.
  • A Microsoft Entra tenant of @fabrikam.com.
  • Two Solutions Partner designations that expire December 1, 2024.

During the merger

1. Contoso buys Fabrikam and goes to Partner Center to initiate a merger request.
2. Fabrikam signs into Partner Center and goes to the same page as Contoso did in step 1 to approve Contoso's request.
3. Contoso reviews the details of the merger on that same page and provides confirmation to proceed with the account merger.

After the merger

After the merger, the company account has the following characteristics.

• A company name of Contoso
• A global PartnerID of 1111111
• Four subordinate location PartnerIDs of 2222222, 3333333, 4444444, and 5555555
• Two Microsoft Entra tenants (@contoso.com and @fabrikam.com) that have access to the same Partner Center account
• Two benefits packages:
  • One Solutions Partner benefits package that expires October 1, 2024
  • Two Solutions Partner benefits packages that expire December 1, 2024
• Three Solutions Partner designations for the merged entity

Also:

• Fabrikam's admins continue to manage Partner Center roles for @fabrikam.com's users.
• Contoso's admins continue to manage Partner Center roles for @contoso.com's users.
• Contoso's and Fabrikam's admins can assign roles for users across all PLAs and the merged PGA account for users from their respective tenants.
• Contoso's admins can only administer Fabrikam's users if they're invited as a guest into Fabrikam's tenant.
• Contoso could decide to ignore the @fabrikam.com tenant and reissue the Fabrikam employees new @contoso.com credentials with new roles and permissions.

Related content

• Assign users roles and permissions
• Verify your partner profile information
• Add Azure Partner Shared Services so partners can buy Azure subscriptions for their own use