The first seven weeks of 2026 have been anything but quiet. A $633 million ITAD revenue quarter at Iron Mountain. A ransomware gang claiming they breached a key industry player. Two major M&A deals closing before the calendar even found its footing. A European expansion wave that may help redraw the competitive map. And a rare earth recovery partnership that puts ITAD squarely inside the U.S. national security conversation. This edition covers the full January 1 – February 21, 2026 period — every material development we tracked across the 60-plus companies on our watch list, organized by the themes that matter most to your business.
Some takeaways from this issue:
→ DDR4 memory prices surged more than 450% year-over-year — a wake-up call for operators still treating memory as commodity shred.
→ SK tes and Paladin both made significant European moves driven by hyperscale customers ahead of May’s EU DIWASS deadline.
→ Park Place and Service Express completed their merger, forming one of the largest independent aftermarket data center services platforms in the world.
→ Apto Solutions partnered with Tusaar to recover rare earth materials from shredded hard drives for the U.S. DoD supply chain.