Verizon to sell 29 data centers in the US and Latin America to Equinix for $3.6 bn
07 Dec 2016
Verizon Communications Inc, the largest wireless carrier in the US, yesterday struck a deal to sell its 29 data centers in the US and Latin America to Equinix Inc for $3.6 billion in cash.
The move comes a month after CenturyLink Inc agreed to sell its data center business to a private-equity consortium led by BC Partners for $2.3 billion.
The data centers being sold are located in 15 metro areas, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Bogota and Sao Paulo.
The sale does not affect Verizon's managed hosting and cloud offerings, or its data center services delivered from 27 sites in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Canada.
Verizon said that the transaction aligns with its strategy to focus resources in areas that will help drive digital transformation for enterprise customers, while providing world-class service.
The deal will boost Equinix's data center count to 175 data centers around the globe, giving it properties in 15 metro markets including Bogotá, Culpeper and Houston and they add a total of more than two million gross square feet of colocation capacity across these and existing key markets for Equinix, including Atlanta, Denver, Miami, New York, São Paulo, Seattle and Silicon Valley.
The acquisition of these new data centers and customers also significantly increases the size and sophistication of its enterprise and government ecosystems.
The deal is Equinix's biggest acquisition since its 2015 purchase of UK peer Telecity Plc, also worth about $3.6 billion (See: US data centre provider Equinix acquires UK rival Telecity Group).
