A small crowd of major financial hitters appears to be gathering around what could become one of the liveliest M&A stories in China’s private tech realm this year, involving New York-listed data center operator VNET Group Inc. (NASDAQ:VNET). That story took another twist this week as Chinese media reported a powerful state player is lining up behind a management-led bid by VNET’s founder to take the company private. We’ll look at this latest development shortly and what it means for the deal.