Equinix is set to acquire Metronode, a data center company in Australia, for $792 million.
Metronode generated approximately $46 million of revenues in the 12 months ending September 30, 2017, with a margin profile accretive to the Equinix Asia-Pacific business.
The acquisition of Metronode will further strengthen the position of Equinix in Asia Pacific region and support its global expansion.
“Growth and expansion is a continued focus for Equinix as we strive to bring together market leaders and innovators on a single, global interconnection platform. 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,” said Samuel Lee, president of Equinix Asia Pacific.
Equinix will be adding 10 data centers, strengthening its position in Sydney and Melbourne, and adding presence in Perth, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane, four new metros to the Equinix global platform. This will bring the company’s total International Business Exchange (IBX) data center footprint in Australia to 15 data centers.
Digitally enabled innovations are forecast to contribute between approximately $107–$191 billion to Australia’s GDP by 2025. The acquisition of Metronode will further extend Platform Equinix, providing more businesses with the direct and secure connectivity they need as they increasingly shift to digital business models.
The acquisition will complement the growth strategy of Equinix in Australia by adding two data centers in Melbourne, three in greater Sydney (including one in Illawarra), two in Perth, and one in each of Canberra, Adelaideand Brisbane. The acquired Metronode sites add approximately 20,000 square meters of gross colocation space to the Equinix footprint.
Metronode adds more than 80,000 square meters of land, 90 percent of which is owned, to the global portfolio of Equinix. Several of the acquired assets provide Equinix with the opportunity to build additional capacity and capture benefits of scale over time.
The acquisition will enable Equinix to provide second campus locations in its existing Sydney and Melbourne metros. These new campuses are hyperscale ready, enabling Equinix to support requirements from high-growth global cloud service providers.
In Asia Pacific, the Interconnection Bandwidth of the Government & Education sector is expected to see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 69 percent from 2016 to 2020, according to the Global Interconnection Index.
The acquisition will bring the total Asia Pacific coverage of Equinix to 40 data centers, and will extend its global footprint to 200 data centers in 52 markets.
“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,” said Jeremy Deutsch, managing director, Equinix Australia.
