Digital Realty Buys DuPont Fabros in All-Stock $7.6 Billion Data Center Deal

Digital Realty will buy DuPont Fabros in a $7.6 billion data center deal, the companies said in a Friday news release. The all-stock transaction is expected to close in the second half of this year, subject to customary conditions including shareholder and regulatory approvals, they said. The deal enhances the companies’ ability to serve top metropolitan areas, expands the companies’ products and provides cost efficiencies, they said. “The addition of [DuPont] should enhance [Digital Realty’s] growth prospects, as it's acquiring an asset that's growing at +10% per year, with recent momentum including a 28.8 MW lease signed by who we believe to be [Apple],” Wells Fargo analysts wrote investors Friday. “Our sense is this customer relationship will only grow.”