REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct.
1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq:
EQIX), the world's digital infrastructure company, today announced
the completion of its acquisition of 13 data
centers1 in Canada
and their operations from BCE Inc. ("Bell"). The US$780 million2 (CA$1,041
million) all-cash transaction includes more than 600
customers, of which more than 500 are new to Equinix, and
approximately 1.2 million gross square feet of data center space.
The deal solidifies Equinix's position as
a leading digital infrastructure provider in Canada, enabling Canadian businesses, as well
as multinationals with a presence in Canada, to leverage a trusted platform to
bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure to
power their success.
Equinix also announced that Andrew
Eppich, a six-year veteran of Equinix originally from
Toronto, has been appointed
Managing Director, Canada. In this
role, Eppich will be responsible for defining Equinix's strategic
vision to: develop the enterprise market; deliver a strong network
of prospects, customers and channel partners; provide thought
leadership to accelerate new business and revenue growth; and
expand Equinix's role as a trusted advisor to companies as they
expand their digital infrastructure.
Highlights / Key Facts
- Equinix's expansion across Canada unlocks opportunities for Canadian
businesses expanding internationally and for multinational
corporations pursuing growth and innovation in the Canadian market.
Canadian companies can benefit from the ability to accelerate their
evolution from traditional to digital businesses by rapidly scaling
their infrastructure, easily adopting hybrid multicloud
architectures and interconnecting with strategic business partners
within the Platform Equinix® ecosystem of nearly 10,000
customers.
- Equinix now operates 15 high-quality International Business
Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers coast to coast in
Canada. In addition to the two
Toronto facilities (TR1 and TR2)
that Equinix has operated since 2010 and 2015 respectively, the
company now operates four additional data centers in Toronto (TR4, TR5, TR6, TR7), three in
Calgary (CL1, CL2, CL3), and one
in each of the following metros: Kamloops (KA1), Montreal (MT1), Ottawa (OT1)3, Saint John (SJ1), Vancouver (VA1) and Winnipeg (WI1).
- Equinix plans to introduce Equinix Cloud Exchange
Fabric® (ECX Fabric®) in the new data
centers. ECX Fabric is an on-demand, SDN-enabled interconnection
service that allows any business to connect between its own
distributed infrastructure and any other company's distributed
infrastructure, including the world's largest network service and
cloud providers, on Platform Equinix.
- Equinix and Bell have begun a strategic partnership that
delivers industry-leading joint offers in Canada and globally. This partnership will
enable enterprises in Canada to
leverage integrated networking and hybrid multicloud services, both
directly and indirectly through the shared partner communities of
Equinix and Bell, combining Bell's telecommunication services and
technology expertise with Equinix's global platform of
interconnected data centers and business ecosystems. This
partnership also allows Equinix to engage with Bell reseller
partners to build stronger relationships with the Canadian channel
ecosystem.
- Andrew Eppich has more than 20
years of experience in B2B technology and helping businesses
digitally transform. Prior to joining Equinix, he served for 13
years at HPE, Inc. in Canada in
sales and channel leadership positions. While at Equinix, Eppich
has led teams in Canada and the
Northeastern U.S., and he has most recently completed a two-year
assignment in Europe leading teams
in the United Kingdom and
Germany.
- The 13 acquired data centers are expected to generate
approximately US$112 million (CA$150
million) annualized revenue (Q4'20E LQA), which represents a
purchase multiple of approximately 15x EV / adjusted EBITDA. The
acquisition will be immediately accretive to Equinix's adjusted
funds from operations (AFFO) per share, excluding integration
costs.
- Equinix's global platform currently includes more than 220 data
centers across 63 metros.
- As a part of the transaction, more than 160 employees,
primarily in the operations functions of the 13 acquired data
centers, joined Equinix effective today.
- Citi and J.P. Morgan acted as financial advisors to
Equinix.
Quotes
- Jon Lin, President, Americas,
Equinix:
"This acquisition complements and extends
Equinix's strategy of expanding our global platform and enhancing
cloud and network density to offer enterprises a path to digital
success. It also provides a unique opportunity for Equinix to
expand its presence in the Americas and positions Equinix as a
leading digital infrastructure provider in Canada. Further, it strengthens relationships
with Canadian enterprises, many of which prefer local credentials
and have multi-metro requirements, while enhancing relationships
with global businesses looking to operate in the Canadian
market."
- Jason Bremner, Research Vice
President, IDC:
"Canada
is the third largest economy in the Americas, and the 10th largest
in the world. It is also home to a thriving aggregation of
multinational corporations that are seeking a clear and rapid
migration path to digital transformation. We expect to see Canadian
spending on digital transformation reach C$28 billion in 2020 with a growth rate of 7%, as
companies look to accelerate their digital initiatives. This
acquisition will offer both Canadian businesses and multinationals
operating in Canada with a strong
new option for building out and managing their digital
infrastructure at key edge metros within the
country."
- Siobhan Cox, Vice President
of Marketing, Bell:
"As the first Equinix Platinum
Partner in Canada, Bell is
leveraging Equinix's world-class data centre operations and our
leadership in network connectivity and cloud service innovation to
enable the digital edge transformation of our customers' operations
in Canada and around the
globe. Bell is excited to build on our joint momentum, which
is already providing major benefits for a large Canadian investment
services customer in our shared community through a migration of IT
infrastructure to Equinix to facilitate a new Open Stack
environment."
- Rick McCalla, Vice President,
Infrastructure, Index Exchange:
"At Index Exchange, we
process billions of transactions a day on our ad exchange, managing
incredibly large amounts of data along the way. Unsurprisingly, our
physical servers play the most critical of roles in creating a
seamless, low-latency user experience for our partners. Having
worked with Equinix across the globe to deliver on this experience,
we could not be more proud to continue our relationship back where
we started: Canada."
- Nancy McCuaig, Senior Vice
President, Chief Technology and Data Officer, IGM Financial
Inc.:
"IGM's partnership with Equinix has played
an important role in our transformation journey and has provided us
with a competitive edge. Our ability to stay connected to global
markets through leveraging Platform Equinix has been critical to
our success as a company. We're excited about Equinix's acquisition
of additional data centres, as it will allow us to enhance
connectivity both within Canada
and across the globe, and result in a better overall client and
user experience."
Additional Resources
- Equinix to Expand Canadian Operations with US$750 Million Acquisition of 13 Bell Data Center
Sites [press release]
- Worldwide Colocation and Interconnection Services 2019-2020
Vendor Assessment [IDC report]
- Equinix's Sustainability Progress -- IT Provider Corporate
Responsibility Profile [IDC report]
- Infrastructure Is Everywhere [Gartner report]
- Learn more about Platform Equinix [website]
About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure
company, enabling digital leaders to harness a trusted platform to
bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure
that powers their success. Equinix enables today's businesses to
access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need
to accelerate advantage. With Equinix, they can scale with agility,
speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class
experiences and multiply their value.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are
based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that
involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from expectations discussed in such
forward-looking statements, including statements related to the
acquisition of data centers from Bell, the expected benefits from
the acquisition, and the anticipated timing for closing of the
Ottawa data center. Factors that
might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks
to our business and operating results related to the COVID-19
pandemic, unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the
integration of data centers or companies we have acquired or will
acquire into Equinix, including the data centers we have acquired
from Bell; the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing
IBX data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix
services, including in the Bell data centers; a failure to receive
significant revenue from customers in recently built out or
acquired data centers, including those acquired from Bell;
competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to
generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay
new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business
from our key customers; and other risks described from time to time
in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In
particular, see recent Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are
available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any
obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in
this press release.
1 Note: includes the Ottawa data center which is subject to a
separate closing that is expected in the coming weeks as additional
closing conditions are satisfied.
2 This amount represents the foreign exchange spot
rate as of September 28, 2020
3 Note the Ottawa
data center is subject to a separate closing that is expected in
the coming weeks as additional closing conditions are
satisfied.
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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.