Swedish investment firm EQT Infrastructure plans to acquire EdgeConneX from a group led by Providence Equity Partners.
Rumors of the sale of the US colocation provider specialized in built-to-order data centers first emerged last year, with a $2.5 billion price tag attached. The deal has now been confirmed, but no price was disclosed.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Keeping the ball rolling
The deal follows on a series of investments in technology firms by EQT Infrastructure - including a joint acquisition of US communications infrastructure provider Zayo, valued at $14.3 billion including the company’s debt of $5.9 billion, as well as of Australian cloud service provider Nexon Asia Pacific, Lumos Networks, and open-source OS SUSE Linux. As of this transaction, the EQT Infrastructure IV fund is somewhere between 80 and 85 percent invested.
This acquisition will give the fund possession of EdgeConneX’s 43 data centers spanning the US, South America, and Europe - as well as a multi-building site in Santa Clara which it recently acquired for $83 million.
EQT plans on helping EdgeConneX to build more data centers. Fund partner Jan Vesely said the consortium “has followed EdgeConneX’s journey from its early years to its growth into a top data center industry player,” and that it is “are deeply impressed by EdgeConneX’s management team and the success they have had in creating a key contributor to the global cloud infrastructure.”
For EdgeConneX, the backing represents an opportunity to expand its operations - while still maintaining a grip on business operations.
Randy Brouckman, CEO of EdgeConneX, said: “I look forward to continuing to lead EdgeConneX and we are very pleased to have EQT as our new owner and partner in this exciting growth phase. On behalf of EdgeConneX, I thank our outstanding customers and partners, dedicated employees and long-term shareholders that gave us the latitude to succeed and create lasting value."
