NEXTDC Limited (ASX:NXT) has hired investment bank Macquarie Capital for the competition to buy $10 billion Global Switch Limited. Macquarie is working with the Australian listed company to find a financial partner. A raft of global private equity firms are likely to be keen on the business.

Information memoranda for the JPMorgan and UBS-run contest are due out this week. The global data centre space is awash with merger and acquisition activity right now, prompting questions about the future of NextDC. Now that the auction has started for Global Switch, NextDC is setting its sights on that business, owned by Jiangsu Shagang Group Co., Ltd.