The Largest Data Center Deals of All Time

May 11, 2022
The list of the largest data center deals of all time has been remade with a flurry of M&A, including the acquisition of Switch by DigitalBridge and IFM. Here’s a look at the billion-dollar deals and the trends behind them.

The list of the largest data center deals has been remade over the past year with the acquisitions of QTS Data Centers, CyrusOne, CoreSite and now Switch.

These type of major M&A deals were among the trends DCF highlighted in our 2021 forecast (Eight Trends That Will Shape the Data Center in 2021), in which we predicted “a big year for data center mergers and acquisitions, including some larger transactions.”

These merger deals continue to reshape the digital infrastructure landscape, helping industry leaders grow faster while enabling the creation of new operating platforms. The current round of M&A and consolidation has been underway for about five years, amid a historic influx of investor capital for digital infrastructure. Acquisitions can accomplish a number of objectives in the growth trajectory of a company.

The Billion-Dollar Transactions

Here’s a look at the M&A action over the last five years, through the lens of billion-dollar deals where the sale-price has been publicly disclosed. This list isn’t exhaustive, as it doesn’t include a number of major M&A deals involving private firms, where the sale price has not been disclosed.

What’s missing? The private transactions with the scale and strategic impact to make the list likely include Digital Bridge’s acquisition of Vantage Data Centers, the EQT Infrastructure deal to buy EdgeConneX, Macquarie’s majority investment in Aligned, and NTT Communications’ two-step acquisition of RagingWire Data Centers.

Want to stay current on all the data center investing, funding and M&A action? Sign up for the DCF Newsletter (it’s free!) and check our Data Center Finance Channel.

About the Author

Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

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