Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.11434 – SILVER LAKE / DIGITALBRIDGE / VANTAGE NA DATA CENTER ASSETS) – Candidate case for simplified procedure
Date: 2024-01-25
Institutions: Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission
Subjects: computer centre, economic concentration, investment, investment company, merger control, provision of services, technology, transmission network








C_202401142EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
Series C













C/2024/1142


25.1.2024






Prior notification of a concentration
(Case M.11434 – SILVER LAKE / DIGITALBRIDGE / VANTAGE NA DATA CENTER ASSETS)
Candidate case for simplified procedure
(Text with EEA relevance)
(C/2024/1142)


1.   
On 10 January 2024, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).
This notification concerns the following undertakings:






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Silver Lake Group, L.L.C. (‘Silver Lake’, United States),










—


DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (‘DigitalBridge’, United States),










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Retained Aviator Holdings, LP; Retained Aviator Holdings WA13, LP; Retained Aviator Holdings CA31, LP; Aviator Holdings 1, LP; Aviator Holdings 1 DC, LP; Lower Tier Aviator Holdings, LP; Lower Tier CA31 Holdings, LP; and Lower Tier WA13 Holdings, LP (together the ‘Vantage NA Data Center Assets’ or ‘Target’, United States), currently jointly controlled by DigitalBridge and Public Sector Pension Investment Board.




Silver Lake and DigitalBridge will acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) and 3(4) of the Merger Regulation joint control over Target.
The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of securities.


2.   
The business activities of the undertakings concerned are the following:






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Silver Lake is a global technology investment firm. Silver Lake’s investment professionals are located across North America, Europe and Asia and have extensive technology investing and operating expertise.










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DigitalBridge is a dedicated, global-scale digital infrastructure investment firm that invests, directly and through its managed funds and its and their portfolio companies in five key areas: (i) data centres; (ii) cell towers; (iii) fibre networks; (iv) small cells; and (v) edge infrastructure.










—


Target holds the assets that comprise the Vantage Data Centers’ activities in North America. In particular, Target is the owner and manager of data centres in Canada and the United States offering colocation services (e.g., provision of space, network, physical security, etc.) for third party servers and other computing hardware stored by third parties in the data centre.






3.   
On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.
Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified treatment for certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in the Notice.


4.   
The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.
Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. The following reference should always be specified:
M.11434 – SILVER LAKE / DIGITALBRIDGE / VANTAGE NA DATA CENTER ASSETS
Observations can be sent to the Commission by email or by post. Please use the contact details below:
Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu
Postal address:





European Commission




Directorate-General for Competition




Merger Registry




1049 Bruxelles/Brussel




BELGIQUE/BELGIË







(1)  
            OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’).

(2)  
            OJ C 160, 5.5.2023, p. 1.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/1142/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)