Davenham Switchgear, founded over 40 years ago, was acquired recently by France’s Legrand in yet another deal this year by international investors taking stakes in data centre-focused firms.
Dublin has long been top of the pack as a location for data centres. Now energy and infrastructure concerns in the race to net-zero emissions are leading operators to countries like Finland and Sweden instead.
Turner Construction Company has acquired the Cork-based engineering group to gain access to its sizeable data centre and pharma projects around Europe.
The Irish company accounts for one in 10MW of national data centre capacity. Its deal with Starwood Capital indicates the scale of investment involved.
Brian McDonagh once dreamt of building the world's largest data centre with his two brothers. After a decade of legal disputes arising from the ill-fated project, the High Court has granted an order for the possession and sale of his Delgany home.
The story of Brian McDonagh, the Apple objector who dreamed of building Ireland's biggest data centre, can be read as a morality tale about knowing when to quit.
He stood in the way of Apple, racked up debt, used forged documents and a front company. Brian McDonagh has been unyielding in his ambition to build a data centre. New High Court findings suggest he will pay a hefty price.
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