Equinix has acquired IO UK's data center operating business in Slough, United Kingdom, the companies confirmed today. The move reinforces London's continued importance as a data center hub despite some initial IT industry concerns about Brexit (Britain's exit from the European Union).
The IO UK facility was an emerging business rather than a truly established data center. It generated roughly $1.4 million in revenue ahead of the deal. Equinix will link the IO UK facility (now called the LD10 location) to additional data centers (LD4, LD5, LD6) on the Equinix Slough campus. The links will enable customers to interconnect with one another across business ecosystems for maximum collaboration across digital supply chains, the company said.
LD10 features 350 cabinets of sold capacity, and will have a total colocation space of approximately 3,340 cabinets once the facility is completely built out.
Equinix Data Center, Partner Ecosystem Expansion
Equinix's UK data centers support nearly 1,300 companies, and the Equinix Slough campus sits at the center of Europe's largest financial trading community. Roughly 25% of European equities trades originating at that location. The data centers connect to roughly 200 network service providers and public clouds like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM Softlayer and Google Cloud Platform. Overall, Equinix operates nearly 150 data centers in 40 markets.
Equinix has been active on the M&A front. The company in December 2016 confirmed plans to buy Verizon's cloud data centers for $3.6 billion, while also continuing to accelerate its channel partner business.
Channel partners also figure prominently in Equinix's growth strategy. Roughly 15 percent of Equinix’s bookings in mid-2016 involved channel partners, up from “high single digits” roughly three years ago, CEO Steve Smith revealed during an August 2016 earnings call.
Equinix poured the foundation for its partner program in 2015. At the tim the company hired RackSpace and ViaWest veteran Christopher Rajiah as VP of channel sales and alliances. By March 2015, Equinix unveiled a formalized partner program for MSPs, network service providers (NSPs), systems integrators and solutions providers. Rajiah apparently exited Equinix in recent weeks. Greg Adgate,VP of partnerships and alliances, has stepped in as interim global channel chief, according to a spokesperson.
Data Center Mergers, Acquisitions
Mergers, acquisitions and exits across the data center landscape have accelerated in recent months. Recent example deals include:
- Stonepeak acquired majority control of Cologix, the companies confirmed this month.
- QTS Realty Trust (QTS) acquired a Dallas, Texas-based data center in January 2017.
- Peak 10 acquired a Kentucky data center in January 2017.
- United Internet acquired Strato AG in December 2016.
- CenturyLink sold its data centers for $2.15 billion to an investment group in November 2016.
More deals could be coming. For instance:
- Digital Bridge Holdings may acquire Vantage Data Centers Management from Silver Lake Partners for more than $1 billion, according to Reuters.
- IBM may buy Lloyds Banking Group’s data centers, according to reports earlier this month.
Complete M&A Coverage: Track all VAR, MSP and CSP mergers and acquisitions by visiting the ChannelE2E Milestones section daily. Also, check out ChannelE2E’s Top 100 Mergers & Acquisitions across the IT channel, 2017 edition.
