The deal will will bring Equinix’s total global footprint to 175 data centres in 43 markets. Image: Mark Agnor
Data centre player Equinix is acquiring a portfolio of 29 data centres from US telecoms giant Verizon in an all-cash transaction of $3.6bn.
The 24 sites consist of 29 data centre buildings across 15 metro areas in Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.
The transaction is expected to close by mid-2017.
‘The new assets will bring hundreds of new customers to Platform Equinix’
– STEVE SMITH
Earlier this year, TelecityGroup, which owned a cluster of data centres in Dublin, was acquired by Equinix in a mega M&A deal worth $3.8bn.
The transaction includes 29 data centre buildings across 24 sites in 15 metro areas, including Atlanta (Atlanta and Norcross), Bogotá, Boston (Billerica), Chicago (Westmont), Culpeper, Dallas (Irving, Richardson-Alma and Richardson-Pkwy), Denver (Englewood), Houston, Los Angeles (Torrance), Miami (Miami and Doral), New York (Carteret, Elmsford and Piscataway), São Paulo, Seattle (Kent), Silicon Valley (Santa Clara and San Jose), and Washington, DC (Ashburn, Manassas and Herndon).
Global data centre empire
The deal will will bring Equinix’s total global footprint to 175 data centres in 43 markets, and approximately 17m sq ft across its markets.
Explaining the rationale behind the deal, Steve Smith, president and CEO of Equinix, said: “It enables us to enhance cloud and network density to continue to attract enterprises, while expanding our presence in the Americas.
“The new assets will bring hundreds of new customers to Platform Equinix while establishing a presence in new markets and expanding our footprint in existing key metros. The deal will also provide significant value for shareholders as the proposed transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to our adjusted funds from operations per share upon close.”
Approximately 250 Verizon employees, primarily in the operations functions of the acquired data centres, will become Equinix employees.
