AtlasEdge has acquired German data center firm Datacenter One (DC1) from Star Capital.

The Digital Realty, Liberty Global, and DigitalBridge-backed company this week announced the deal, which said DC1’s footprint complement AtlasEdge’s existing operations in Berlin and Hamburg and includes ‘significant “ready-to-sell” capacity’.

Terms of the deal were not announced but are expected to close towards the end of 2022 pending the usual approvals. Wolfgang Kaufmann, CEO of DC1, will join AtlasEdge’s Management Team.

Stuttgart-based DC1 offers colocation services out of four facilities in Germany. The company offers two facilities in Stuttgart; the 1,600 square meter (17,200 sq ft) NB10 and 300 sqm (3,200 sq ft) NB8. In West Germany, its LEV1 facility in Leverkusen opened in 2017 and offers 3,000 sqm (32,300 sq ft) with room to expand to 6,000 sqm (64,400 sq ft) and 12MW of capacity. The company opened DUS1 in Dusseldorf in January 2020; the facility offers ​​7,400 sqm (79,650 sq ft) – expandable to 10,000 sqm (107,600 sq ft).

“This is a highly strategic transaction for AtlasEdge,” said Giuliano Di Vitantonio, CEO, AtlasEdge. “Germany is an important part of our expansion plans and a market that has seen customer demand rise across multiple metros. Acquiring DC1 transforms AtlasEdge into Germany’s leading distributed platform, with ready-to-sell capacity in key locations across the country. We look forward to working with our new colleagues and continuing to grow our footprint across the continent.”

DC1’s Kaufmann added, “The joint expertise of DC1 and AtlasEdge, together with the increased scale and customer offering that this deal enables is a real win. We have experienced first-hand the rising demand and growth potential in the German market, and this is a fantastic next step for us. Our combined locations, ethos, and ambition are all the right ingredients, and we’re very excited to be joining AtlasEdge.”

DC1 was formed in 2016 after private equity firm Star Capital acquired IT services firm Globalways and spun out the colo firm as the new parent company. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed at the time, but the company said it would invest €60 million (~$68m) of growth capital into the colo firm to fuel expansion. Star had reportedly been looking to exit its majority stake in the company this year.

Uniti Ballahm, managing partner at Star Capital, said: “We are pleased that with our many years of experience in the development of high-growth infrastructure companies we were able to support the team in establishing a leading German colocation operator. We thank Wolfgang and the entire team for the good cooperation and look forward to continuing the DC1 success story with AtlasEdge.”

Last year telecoms company Liberty Global and digital infrastructure fund Digital Colony (now DigitalBridge) announced plans to launch AtlasEdge to operate more than 100 Edge data centers across Europe. The deal brought together DigitalBridge’s Edge assets and Liberty Global’s real estate portfolio, with several Liberty Global operating companies acting as anchor tenants; Virgin Media in the UK, Sunrise-UPC in Switzerland, and UPC in Poland. Digital Realty has also invested in the company.

In November 2021, Atlas acquired twelve data centers from Colt Data Centre Services (DCS). The portfolio included data centers in 11 tier one and tier two markets across Europe including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Hamburg, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, and Zurich; Colt Technology Services is an anchor tenant across multiple facilities.

The company recently sold a facility in Barcelona acquired from Colt to Principal Real Estate in August, though it never officially confirmed the news. This year has also seen AtlasEdge acquire a data center in Leeds, UK.

DH Capital, a division of Citizens, acted as financial advisor and Hogan Lovells acted as legal counsel to AtlasEdge. Jefferies acted as financial advisor and King & Wood Mallesons acted as legal counsel to Star.