Over the last five years, over $50 billion has changed hands between companies acquiring or merging in the colo sector.

Either in the EMEA, APAC or North American markets, M&As changed company’s positions in the global rank.

Following Equinix’s acquisition of TelecityGroup, CBR has looked back and compiled a list of the main data centre M&As of the last few years.

1. TelecityGroup

Value: $3.5bn
When: 2015

The most recent billion dollar acquisition in the data centre industry was between Equinix and TelecityGroup.

On May 29, Equinix announced it acquired TelecityGroup for $3.5 billion, bringing its market share in the EMEA region to 14%, according to Synergy Research Group.

The ‘data centre war’, as it became known, also featured Interxion, which in a first stage was said to be merging with TelecityGroup in a $2.2 billion deal back in February.

Stephen Smith, CEO of Equinix, said: "The addition of TelecityGroup’s businesses will considerably strengthen Equinix’s offering to customers in Europe and beyond, reinforcing us as a global leader in global interconnection and data centres, as well as bringing the benefits of greater cloud and network density to our customers."

2. Savvis

Value: $2.5bn
When: 2011

CenturyLink invested $2.5 billion to acquire Savvis and its nearly 50 data centres in North America, Europe and Asia.

By acquiring Savvis, CenturyLink projected itself into the global colo and managed hosting markets.

Glen F. Post, III, CenturyLink’s CEO said: "The transaction creates a premier managed hosting and collocation provider with global scale in a high growth sector, and is expected to be accretive to revenue growth and cash flow per share.

James E. Ousley, former CEO at Savvis, added: "As migration to cloud-based services continues to accelerate rapidly, a strategic combination was a natural choice to create significant scale and become part of a large global network for the benefit of our customers, stockholders and employees."

3. Quest

Value: $2.4bn
When: 2012

Before being made private in a $24 billion deal with Silver Lake Partners in 2013, Dell spent $2.4 billion to acquire Quest Software in 2012.

The move gave Dell a better solutions portfolio for data centre management.

John Swainson, president of Dell Software Group said: "The addition of Quest will enable Dell to deliver more competitive server, storage, networking and end user computing solutions and services to customers."

Vinny Smith, former CEO of Quest Software added: "With this transaction, Quest’s products and employees become the foundation for Dell’s critical software business."

4. Sentrum

Value: $1.1bn
When: 2012

In 2012 colo firm Digital Realty spent $1.1 billion to acquire three London data centres from Sentrum.

The facilities in Woking, Watford and Croydon, summed an extra 761,000 sq ft of data centre space to Digital Realty’s portfolio.

Scott Peterson, CAO for Digital Realty, said at the time: "The portfolio is approximately 80% leased to a diverse roster of 21 tenants, including leading multinational financial institutions and global network providers, with a weighted average remaining lease term of approximately 8 years."

5. ViaWest

Value: $1.2bn
When: 2014

Shaw Communications, a Canadian telco company, invested $1.2 billion in 2014 to acquire all the 27 data centres owned by ViaWest.

ViaWest provides data centre infrastructure, cloud technology and managed IT solutions in North America.

The company’s colo sites portfolio is equivalent to more than 630,00 sq ft of usable raised floor and it’s located in Denver, Dallas, Austin, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Portland, Minneapolis and Phoenix.

Brad Shaw, CEO at Shaw, said: "The ViaWest acquisition provides Shaw a growth platform in the attractive data centre sector and is another significant step in expanding our technology offerings for mid-market enterprises in Western Canada, building on the growth from our 2013 Envision acquisition."