Shaw Communications plans to sell US data centre company ViaWest

Canadian cable company Shaw Communications is planning to sell ViaWest, just three years after acquiring the US data centre company, Reuters today reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Shaw has hired Toronto-Dominion Bank to conduct an auction for ViaWest, the report said.

Shaw is hoping that the sale would fetch it over the $1.2 billion it paid to acquire it in 2014 from private equity firms Oak Hill Capital Partners and GI Partners, the report added.

The sale is part of the Edmonton-based company's ongoing plan of divesting non-core assets and streamlining its operations.

The move comes a year after it sold its media assets to its subsidiary Corus Entertainment Inc for C$2.65 billion, and later acquired the country's fourth-largest wireless provider Wind Mobile for C$1.6 billion (See: Canada's Shaw Communications Inc to acquire Wind Mobile)

Founded in 1999 and based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, ViaWest provides information technology (IT) and infrastructure solutions for businesses in North America.

It owns and operates 30 enterprise-class data centers in Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Minnesota, Arizona, and in Calgary, Canada.

ViaWest offers a full-suite of IT services, from cloud storage solutions, colocation to IT consulting to its over 2,000 customers.