Bank mergers and acquisitions are expected to be prominent this year as lenders look to scale and ramp up their internal investment in technologies, writes Bram Berkowitz. Citizens, People's United, New York Community Bancorp, BankUnited, Prosperity Bancshares, Flagstar Bancorp and Sterling Bancorp are among the most likely to make deals, he writes.

Two hundred and thirty-one bank deals have been introduced from Jan. 1 to Nov. 1 of this year, an increase of 4% over last year, according to Compass Point, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and S&P Global Market Intelligence. The biggest deal is the $28.1 billion merger of SunTrust and BB&T banks, but overall the dollar amount of deals is 19% lower than last year.

Activity in the data center market remains strong, with 52 mergers and acquisitions recorded for the first six months of the year for an 18% year over year increase, according to Synergy Research Group. "We have seen an uptick in enterprise data centers for sale and have evaluated a number of them," says Jon Lin, president of Equinix, Americas.

Eighteen bank deals have been announced since mid-July with a value of more than $2.4 billion. The deals include, among others, WesBanco's purchase of Old Line Bancshares, a move that will give WesBanco a presence in Washington, DC.

An Accenture report found that health care organizations are showing greater interest in acquiring IT firms and physician practices rather than hospitals. Merger and acquisition deals in health care totaled $241 billion in the first five months of the year. Accenture found that hospitals were making "digital deals" that increased their access to technology such as population health management tools, telemedicine and analytics.