NTT Buys Deeper Into UK Data Center Market

Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Communications (NYSE:NTT, news, filings) has been busy in Europe lately, and today they furthered their cloud ambitions via M&A. They have acquired an 85% stake in Gyron Internet Limited, a UK data center operator. Gyron operates 3MW of space near London with two more data centers totaling another 16MW under construction.  NTT will use the assets to help power its cloud-based global enterprise initiative, on which it has spent much effort over the last year or two.

I doubt very much this will be their last purchase. Infrastructure assets in Europe are cheap right now due to the economic headwinds.  NTT could very well consider this an opportunity to quickly add more balance to its Asian-focused global presence. While I doubt they’ll pull a Carlos Slim and go bid for one of the region’s PTTs, further data center and even fiber assets could grab their attention. On the other hand, they didn’t show up at all in the Cable & Wireless Worldwide auction, so their interest is probably tightly focused.

As for Gyron, its current Managing Director, Robin Balen, and Operations Director, will retain the other 15% of the company and will continue operating the business. The two facilities under construction are in Slough and Hemel Hempstead, with 8MW of capacity planned at each.  They announced the former just yesterday, and the latter last June.

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Categories: Datacenter · ILECs, PTTs · Mergers and Acquisitions