About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Digital Realty and Interxion Combine to Create Dominant Provider of Data Center Solutions

Subscribe to our newsletter

San Francisco-based Digital Realty has won the recent bidding war for European provider of carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data centre services, Interxion, entering into a definitive strategic agreement to acquire the firm for an estimated $8.4 billion – heralded as the biggest data centre transaction on record.

The stock-swap deal will propel Digital Realty into position as the second-largest data provider in Europe after Equinix – and represents a highly strategic play by the REIT, which saw its revenues grow 5% in the third quarter of 2019 and is keen to spend the cash on growing its global footprint and advancing its private capital program. “In the third quarter, we signed total bookings expected to generate $69 million of annualized GAAP rental revenue, including an $8 million contribution from interconnection,” said CEO A. William Stein. The firm also signed renewal leases representing $152 million of annualized GAAP rental revenue during the quarter.

Interxion will be a valuable addition to the stable, with a European business currently consisting of 53 carrier- and cloud-neutral facilities in 11 European countries and 13 metro areas including Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris and Interxion’s Internet Gateway in Marseille. This positioning is highly complementary to Digital Realty’s existing European footprint, with an established presence in London and Dublin. The combination will create pan-European data centre presence that has low-latency access to approximately 70% of the GDP in Europe.

In addition, Interxion’s well-established relationships with a diverse range of global cloud, digital media platform operators and multinational enterprise customers are expected to significantly bolster Digital Realty’s existing European platform, with the development of public and hybrid cloud architecture a key focus point going forward.

Interxion also has a healthy and attractive pipeline of data centre development projects currently under construction, with over $400 million invested to date and a total expected investment of approximately $1 billion. These projects represent roughly a 40% expansion of Interxion’s standalone critical load capacity, are significantly pre-leased and are expected to be delivered over the next 24 months, representing a solid pipeline of potential future growth for the combined company. The combined platform is expected to maintain strategic land holdings in key growth metros across Europe, providing the potential for significant long-term development value creation.

Stein will continue to serve as CEO of the combined company, while Interxion CEO David Ruberg will serve as the Chief Executive of the combined company’s EMEA business, which will be branded ‘Interxion, a Digital Realty company’ after the transaction is completed. Digital Realty Chief Financial Officer Andrew P. Power will serve as CFO of the combined company.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Unlocking Competitive Edge with Outsourcing and Managed Services in Trading Technology

Outsourcing has emerged as a strategic solution for capital markets firms as trading technology infrastructures become more complex, data volumes grow exponentially, and regulatory pressures intensify. .By leveraging third-party expertise, firms can optimise operations, reduce costs, and focus on innovation in their trading technology stack. Outsourcing potentially enables firms to scale seamlessly, meet regulatory reporting...

BLOG

Pico Launches IntelliVUE for Enhanced Network Monitoring and Analytics

Pico, the financial markets technology services, software, data, and analytics provider, has introduced Pico IntelliVUE, an advanced network monitoring and analytics solution for PicoNet, the company’s ultra-low-latency fire-optic network platform. The tool, supported by Pico’s Corvil Analytics technology, integrates multiple data streams into a unified visualisation, delivering actionable insights and detailed performance analytics. IntelliVUE offers...

EVENT

Buy AND Build: The Future of Capital Markets Technology

Buy AND Build: The Future of Capital Markets Technology London examines the latest changes and innovations in trading technology and explores how technology is being deployed to create an edge in sell side and buy side capital markets financial institutions.

GUIDE

Entity Data Management Handbook – Fifth Edition

Welcome to the fifth edition of A-Team Group’s Entity Data Management Handbook, sponsored for the fourth year running by entity data specialist Bureau van Dijk, a Moody’s Analytics Company. The past year has seen a crackdown on corporate responsibility for financial crime – with financial firms facing draconian fines for non-compliance and the very real...