The value of datacentre acquisition deals in 2020, has already surpassed 2019 deals.
Recent research from Synergy Research Group shows the value of datacentre-oriented mergers and acquisition deals, in the first sixteen weeks of 2020 has already surpassed the 2019 total.
According to Synergy in the last four years the trend has been for the number of deals to increase sharply, while in the last two years the aggregate value dropped off due to a relative lack of mega-deals being closured.
“That situation has reversed in the first months of 2020, thanks in large part to the US$8.4 billion acquisition of Interxion by Digital Realty, one of the largest ever datacentre transaction,” stated Synergy. “Meanwhile two other billion dollar-plus deals have closed so far this year as well as two that were valued at over US$500 million.”
Synergy has so far identified 28 data centre-oriented deals that have closed this year.
John Dinsdale, chief analyst at Synergy Research Group said 2020 will be a bumper year for data center M&A activity.
“In less than four months the M&A value has already surpassed 2019, in addition to which we are aware of 17 more agreed deals that are pending closure plus a few other potential multi-billion dollar deals,” he said.
Tisdale said the cause of these deals can be attributed to “outsourcing trends and the aggressive growth in cloud services are driving ever-growing demand for datacentre capacity”.
“[This] is fueling both industry restructuring and a need to find new sources of investment capital,” he said.
Since 2015 Synergy has identified 388 closed deals with an aggregated value of US$90 billion. Over the period the aggregated deal value has been split equally between public companies and private equity buyers, while private equity buyers have accounted for 57 per cent of the deal volume.
Synergy states during that time, the largest deals to be closed are the acquisitions of Interxion and DuPont Fabros by Digital Realty; the acquisition of Global Switch by a group of Chinese investors; and the acquisitions of Verizon datacentres and Telecity by Equinix.
“Over the 2015-2020 period, by far the largest investors have been Digital Realty and Equinix, the world’s two leading colocation providers,” states Synergy.
“In aggregate they account for 35 per cent of total deal value over the period. Other notable data center operators who have been serial acquirers include CyrusOne, Iron Mountain, Digital Bridge/DataBank, NTT, GI Partners, Carter Validus, GDS, QTS and Keppel.”
Tags: Datacentre
