Digital Realty announced on Friday that it has closed its $8.4 billion deal to buy European data center operator Interxion. The deal, which was announced last October, gives colocation giant Digital Realty a much larger footprint in Europe. Digital Realty now counts 267 data centers in 44 metro areas in 20 countries across six continents.
With Interxion in hand, Digital Realty is now Europe's largest colocation company , and it has laid claim to being the largest colocation provider in the world. Including Digital Realty's presence in London and Dublin, the combined company will offer services to approximately 70% of the gross domestic products (GDP) in Europe.
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Interxion’s European business consists of 53 carrier-neutral and cloud-neutral facilities in 11 European countries and 13 metro areas including Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris and Interxion’s Internet Gateway in Marseille, France.
Along with Equinix, Digital Realty has been at the forefront of the data center and colocation boom. In October, Equinix expanded its global footprint by wrapping up a more than $1 billion joint venture to develop hyperscale data centers in Europe. Earlier this year, Equinix announced it was buying the bare metal data center company Packet for $335 million.