American cloud infra company Equinix have announced an agreement to buy Australian data center operator Metronode in a USD 1.3B deal. With this acquisition, Equinix will expand its network in Australia and also step-up their global outreach to 200 data centers in 52 markets.
Equinix says that they have entered into an agreement with Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan (OTPP), Metronode’s parent financial institution. They also explained that the agreement seeks to give Equinix access to Metronode’s 10 data centers around major Australian government agencies and telecom providers spread across different cities.
Moreover, with this deal, Equinix say that their data center tally will increase to 15 in Australia and 40 in APAC to give them a strong hold over the region. Sharing the intent and objective behind this acquisition, Jeremy Deutsch, MD at Equinix Australia said:
As well as expanding our national footprint with Metronode’s existing sites, this acquisition also enables us to build out sites that are currently in development to further expand our presence in Australia.
Echoing his thoughts, Samuel Lee, President at Equinix APAC added:
The acquisition of Metronode helps Equinix to accelerate the expansion of our global footprint and support our customers in the region as they move their infrastructure to the edge, closer to their customers and partners.
Industry experts believe that the acquisition is a well-planned move after Metronode announced their second data center facility in Wollongong after clocking USD 60 million of revenue in the 12 months before September. We feel that the ambitious plans of both entities, now merged into one, will play a crucial role in shaping the dynamics of the cloud and data center industry in the APAC region.
Equinix says that the deal is set to close in Jan 2018 subject to regulatory approvals.