The $780 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 centre space.
“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,” said Jon Lin, President, Americas, Equinix.
“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.”
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 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.
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 US, and he has most recently completed a two-year assignment in Europe leading teams in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Equinix now operates 15 International Business Exchange data centres 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 centres in Toronto and three in Calgary.
The company also has facilities in Kamloops, Montreal, Ottawa, Saint John, Vancouver and Winnipeg.
The 13 acquired data centres are expected to generate approximately $112 million (CA$150 million) annualised revenue.
“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,” said Siobhan Cox, Vice President of Marketing, Bell.
“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.”
Equinix’s global platform currently includes more than 220 data centres across 63 metros, and Citi and J.P. Morgan acted as financial advisors to Equinix.
