TelecityGroup and Interxion announced recently that they had reached a non-binding agreement to merge, which could be completed in the second half of 2015 if necessary shareholder and regulatory approvals are received. Synergy Research Group data shows that the merged company would surpass Equinix and become the clear leader of the retail colocation market in the EMEA region. It would be the market leader in the UK and the Netherlands, the number two ranked operator in Spain and Switzerland, the number three ranked operator in Germany and France and  the leader in the smaller country markets that are aggregated into the rest of the region.

Based on Q3 2014 data the merged TelecityGroup/Interxion would have a 15% share of the EMEA retail colocation market and Equinix 9%. Currently TelecityGroup and Interxion are in a close fight for second placed position in the EMEA market, with neither one being too far behind Equinix. While US-headquartered Equinix has a global footprint with many data centers in North America, Latin America and the APAC region in addition to EMEA, TelecityGroup and Interxion both maintain a tight focus on the EMEA region. In addition to the six largest EMEA markets mentioned previously, the two European operators also have data centers and a substantial market share in countries such as Sweden, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Finland. Currently the EMEA region accounts for 33% of the worldwide retail colocation market.

“The retail colocation market continues to grow at around 10% per year, boosted by trends in big data, cloud services, outsourcing and video/social networking,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst and research director at Synergy Research Group. “As the market continues to grow it is no surprise that the major operators are driving to expand to expand their geographic footprint. M&A can achieve growth goals much more quickly than organic growth and we continue to see a constant stream of deals to expand data center footprint and market presence.”