Investment firm BC Partners Ltd. is leading the race to buy CenturyLink Inc.'s data center business, Reuters reported Oct. 11, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The development comes after another private equity consortium, consisting of GTCR LLC, Charlesbank Capital Partners LLC, Berkshire Partners LLC and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, reportedly failed to submit a bid for the data centers that CenturyLink is looking to divest for more than $2.5 billion.

However, a potential deal with BC Partners appears uncertain due to CenturyLink's leases with Digital Realty Trust Inc., a company which rents out data centers, according to the report. CenturyLink owns 59 co-location data centers.