- Six Degrees acquires Datahop; enhancing network, presence
- NTT acquires majority stake in UK’s Gyron
- UK2′s VPS.NET doubles infrastructure location footprint globally
The last few days were marked by signficant M&A activity. In Canada, an investment group including Canadian telco Bell Canada acquired pureplay colocation provider Q9 for over $1b. This was preceded by NTT acquiring Gyron, a colocation provider in the UK. Both transactions saw a telco acquire a colocation provider for the purposes of expanding footprint in strategic geographies.
Meanwhile, we continue to see solid growth in the sector. In the UK, iomart Group reported its FY2012 results while we finally put privately held AppRiver on our radar. AppRiver just opened a new office in Europe and has experienced an uptick in momentum with Exchange hosting since the Office 365 launch – suggesting again that fears of Microsoft rolling over the market might be a bit exaggerated. All indications are that this is another growing hosting company.
Other key develoments over the last few days include more cloud node expansions and customer wins. Both the expansions and wins we covered speak to the importance of location. In a highly automated and remotely managed business, geography still matters and it is the need for backup and disaster recovery that is driving this.
