According to a report from Data Center Knowledge, 2017 was the biggest year in history for data center acquisitions, outpacing the previous two years combined. The biggest reason for the increase in activity is enterprise data center outsourcing by way of cloud services, colocation facilities, or the sale and leaseback of data centers. There were 48 data center acquisitions in 2017, totaling around $20 billion. Without further ado, here is a rundown of some of the biggest ones, along with some of the newest announced data center acquisitions of 2018.
Digital Realty Merges with DuPont Fabros
In June of 2017, Digital Realty -- a provider of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions -- announced its $7.6 billion merger with DuPont Fabros, an owner, developer, operator and manager of large data centers. The company stated in its announcement that the merger would enhance its ability to provide data center services to top U.S. metropolitan areas. At the time of the transaction, DuPont Fabros had six data center projects, with 48 percent of those projects already preleased and representing a total investment of $750 million.
Equinix Acquires Verizon Data Centers
Equinix closed the deal in May of 2017 to acquire 29 of Verizon's data center facilities in 15 locations in North America and South America. The $3.6 billion deal included much-coveted data centers in Miami and Culpepper, Virginia, and represented the largest of a number of recent deals involving telecommunications companies selling their data center assets in order to raise capital and reduce operating costs. The Miami and Culpepper sites amounted to more than half of the $450 million in annual revenue that the data centers acquired by Equinix were expected to generate.
Cyxtera Acquires CenturyLink Data Centers
New company Cyxtera, ran by the former CEO of Terramark, acquired nearly 60 data centers formerly owned by CenturyLink in May of 2017, according to a Data Center Knowledge report. In addition to the $2.15 billion acquisition of the data centers, Cyxtera also acquired four data security and analytics companies in order to provide data centers with the specific focus of security. As part of the deal, CenturyLink now owns 10 percent of Cyxtera.
CenturyLink Acquires Level 3
Reportedly, CenturyLink sold all of its data centers earlier in the year in order to partially fund the $24 billion acquisition of Level 3 Communications. The acquisition, which was announced in November of 2017, was approved in October by the Federal Communications Commission, as reported by Reuters. CenturyLink's goal, the report noted, was to expand its reach into the business communications market to compete with AT&T and Verizon. Although CenturyLink divested itself of its own data centers before the transaction was approved, it acquired about 350 Level 3-owned data centers in the deal, located in North America, Latin America, and Europe
Peak 10 Acquires ViaWest
In June 2017, it was announced that Peak 10 would be acquiring Denver-based ViaWest for $1.67 billion, expanding its reach from 16 data centers in 10 markets to 40 data centers in 20 markets. It also expanded the company's data center reach west of Kentucky (all the way to Portland, as a matter of fact) and made it one of the two biggest players in the tier-two data center market. The acquisition allowed the company to attract larger customers to its traditional small to mid-size business base.
Digital Bridge Acquires Vantage
In a transaction worth about $1 billion, Digital Bridge acquired Vantage Data Centers in March of 2017. At the time, Vantage was noted as the largest wholesale data center landlord in Silicon Valley. Communications infrastructure investor, Digital Bridge, had just made its debut into the data center industry in 2016 when it acquired a retail colocation and managed services provider, DataBank.
CyrusOne Acquires Zenium
In January 2018, CyrusOne announced the $442 million acquisition of Zenium Data Centers. Zenium was a hyperscale data center provider with four facilities in Frankfurt and London. The CEO of CyrusOne said that the transaction agreed with its objective to establish a presence in Europe's two largest data center markets.
Iron Mountain Acquires IO's U.S. Data Centers
In January 2018, Iron Mountain Incorporated announced that it had completed a transaction in which it paid $1.34 billion for the U.S. operations of IO Data Centers LLC. The sale included four data centers, located in Scottsdale and Phoenix, Arizona; Edison, New Jersey; and Columbus, Ohio. The acquisition also included customer expansion at the Phoenix data center by Cyxtera. The IO transaction followed the 2017 acquisition of FORTRUST data center in September 2017, and the company's announced plans in October to purchase data centers in London and Singapore.
Equinix Acquires Metronode
In April of this year, Equinix made headlines again when it closed an $804 million deal to acquire Australian data services provider, Metronode. The acquisition brought Equinix's data center facilities to 200 worldwide and made it the first colocation company ever to own that many. It also strengthened the company's leadership position within the Asia-Pacific region.
GTT Acquires Interoute
In February 2018, GTT Communications acquired Interoute for $2.3 billion. The acquisition added to GTT's portfolio, 15 data centers, 17 virtual data centers, and 51 colocation facilities. The transaction also provided a fiber footprint across 24 metro areas, and interconnecting 126 cities in 29 countries.
As noted by Data Center Knowledge, the bustling merger and acquisition of data centers is expected to continue for the remainder of this year and into the next five years, as enterprises focus on improving their IT capabilities. It is an exciting time to be doing what we do, which is creating a global marketplace for buyers and sellers of data center, cloud, and connectivity services. We provide colocation services, dedicated servers, cryptocurrency and blockchain hosting services, and cloud infrastructure-as-a-service services, as well as physical space layout, equipment, and associated power rating requirements for third-party colocation, cloud, managed, connectivity, disaster recovery, and cybersecurity services. Check back here for more news about data centers, and check out our data center database today for more information or to request a quote or a tour.
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