Equinix to acquire Switch and Data

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 22 October 2009, 17:25 IST
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Bangalore: Global colocation and Internet exchange giant Equinix announced a definitive agreement to acquire one of its competitors Switch and Data. As a result of the $689 million deal Equinix will expand its footprint by 34 datacenters in the U.S. and Canada. Switch and Data facilities 'floor space totaling about one million square feet' will bring the total number of Equinix datacenters to 79, the buyer said in a statement. The transaction will allow Equinix to expand instantly in several strategically important markets, including Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Seattle and Toronto. "Our complementary business models, coupled with Switch and Data's broad North American market coverage, provide a platform for strong growth as well as an opportunity to accommodate our customers' demands for additional services," said Steve Smith, Equinix CEO. The deal is expected to be closed in the first quarter of 2010. Equinix will pay a combination of stock (80 percent) and cash (20 percent) for Switch and Data assets. Equinix concluded that a major demand driver in new markets - such as Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Seattle and Toronto, is customer focus on latency and the need to locate IT equipment geographically close to the end users. The company has been expanding aggressively over the past several months, announcing datacenter expansions in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The company said that it chose to expand in the U.S. by buying Switch and Data because U.S. is the largest datacenter and collocation service market, representing about two-thirds of Equinix's revenues.