The value of data center-oriented M&A deals that closed in the first eleven months of 2020 crossed the $30 billion mark, Synergy Research Group said.
In terms of deal volume, the final 2020 number will almost pass the record number that closed in 2019. With a number of potential December deals still on the table, 2020 has so far seen 113 deals closed at a total value of $30.9 billion.
While the $8.4 billion acquisition of Interxion by Digital Realty helped to boost the 2020 number, five other billion dollar-plus deals have closed so far this year, plus there was a $2 billion secondary share listing.
Since the beginning of 2015 Synergy has identified 483 closed deals with an aggregated value of $107 billion.
Since 2015 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 data centers 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. In aggregate they account for 31% of total deal value over the period. Other companies who have been serial acquirers include Colony, CyrusOne, GDS, Digital Bridge / DataBank, Iron Mountain, NTT, GI Partners, Carter Validus, QTS and Keppel.
John Dinsdale, chief analyst at Synergy Research Group, said: “We are also aware of almost $7 billion in deals and IPOs that are at various stages of closing, so the pipeline remains robust despite the flurry of activity in 2020.”
