Data center provider Equinix, Inc. has acquired smaller British data center group Telecity Group plc for £2.3 billion ($3.6 billion) in a cash and stock deal.

Founded in 1998, Telecity claims to be Europe’s leading provider of premium carrier-neutral data centres.

Its data centers are said to provide secure and highly-connected environments for the IT and telecoms equipment that powers the digital economy. Telecity data centers enable environments in which the separate networks that make up the internet meet and where bandwidth intensive applications, content, and information are hosted.

Telecity operates data centers in Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Istanbul, London, Manchester, Milan, Paris, Sofia, Stockholm and Warsaw.

“The addition of Telecity Group’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” Chief Executive Officer & President of Equinix Stephen Smith said in a statement. “The transaction will allow Equinix to benefit from increased scale and extend the global reach of our platform.”

Executive Chairman of Telecity Group John Hughes added “through this transaction, our customers will have new global opportunities for their connected data centre requirements. The combination of Equinix and TelecityGroup services and people will ensure the expanded business leads the way in the provision of highly-connected data centre services for customers in Europe and all over the world.”

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The deal comes after Telecity had previously announced its intention to merge with Interxion (International Headquarters BV) in February in a deal to form an enlarged group with a combined value of $4.5 billion.

Equinix had other thoughts about that merger deal and put an acquisition offer on the table early May that Telecity was compelled to consider; we know now it was well received.

The acquisition of Telecity by Equinix will create the largest data centre company in Europe, and in itself provide intense competition to scorned suitor Interxion.

Equinix, which has a market cap of ver $14 billion, runs over 100 data centers worldwide and has a presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as home territory in North America.

The company reported revenue of $2.44 billion in the year to the end of December, and according to reports has invested over a billion dollars in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the last five years.

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