November 8, 2016

CenturyLink to sell data centers in a $2.15 billion deal

The company will retain hosting and cloud assets supporting network-first and hybrid-IT strategy

Security firm

This week, CenturyLink announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell its data centers and co-location business to a consortium led by BC Partners and Medina Capital

Through this deal, CenturyLink will receive $2.15 billion in cash, subject to offsets for capital lease obligations and various working capital and other adjustments, and a minority stake to be valued at $150 million in consortium’s newly-formed global secure infrastructure company.

CenturyLink says that it plans to use the net proceeds from this sale to partly fund its acquisition of Level 3 Communications which was confirmed on October 31, 2016.

Glen F. Post, CEO and President of CenturyLink said :

After conducting a thorough review process, we are pleased to have reached an agreement with BC Partners.

We believe this transaction will benefit customers, employees and investors. Both CenturyLink and BC Partners have a strong customer focus and are committed to ensuring a seamless transition of the customers and their colocation environments.

CenturyLink also announced that it will continue offering customers with IT services including network, managed hosting and cloud. It will no longer own the data centers but will continue offering co-location services as a part of its product portfolio through its commercial relationships with BC Partners and Medina-led consortium.