Craig Scroggie is the meat in a data centre sandwich

If Craig Scroggie is the answer, what is Greg Goodman's question?

It seems even NEXTDC's beaten-down chief executive is trying to figure it out after Melbourne's NIMBYs laid waste to his share price and exposed him to the whims of Ackland Investments, an unlikely alliance between Goodman's ASX-listed logistics group, Goodman Group, and the Dallas-headquartered data centre operator, Digital Realty.

So far, Ackland has hoovered up 9.9 per cent of NEXTDC. It's not a controlling stake but it's worth comparing the size of each of the three companies involved: NEXTDC's market capitalisation is $7.6 billion; Goodman's is $60 billion; and Digital Realty's is $68 billion – except in US dollars. Scroggie isn't constructively engaging with two competitors but it doesn't matter much. He's the filling in a data centre shit sandwich.

Ackland has insisted this is not the start of a hostile takeover (yet), a position echoed by NEXTDC in market disclosures.[["Neither party has any present intention of submitting a control proposal, or making a takeover offer for NEXTDC, but reserves their right to do so should circumstances change," Ackland told the ASX on November 9.]] Naturally, this has led most people to conclude the opposite.