Equinix expands Iberian footprint after $259m Itconic deal
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Equinix expands Iberian footprint after $259m Itconic deal

Equinix has today announced that it has expanded its Iberian footprint after entering into an agreement with The Carlyle Group to purchase Itconic and its CloudMas subsidiary.

The acquisition of Itconic, a leading data centre, connectivity and cloud infrastructure solutions provider in Spain and Portugal, and CloudMas, an Itconic subsidiary that is focussed on supporting enterprise adoption and use of cloud services, totalled €215 million or approximately $259 million in an all-cash transaction.

“The large-scale deployments of new direct submarine cables between Europe, Latin America and Africa will connect through Iberia, making it a globally relevant key interconnection hub and a geographically important region for Equinix,” said Eric Schwartz, EMEA president at Equinix, which continues to play an important role in helping companies to extend their IT operations to the digital edge through the interconnection of people, locations, clouds and data.

“With the acquisition of Itconic, we will continue to deliver the level of excellence and Interconnection that the industry expects and which our customers demand. Our ongoing growth signifies our commitment to the region and to developing our global footprint to support the growing digital business needs of our customers.”

The acquisition includes five data centres across four metros, with two located in Madrid, and one facility in Barcelona, Seville, and Lisbon. It adds approximately 322,000 gross sq ft to the Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre portfolio, which currently has more than 180 IBX data centres in 44 markets.

In addition, the CloudMas business brings a highly experienced team of technology professionals with deep expertise in hybrid cloud architectures and cloud adoption and migration strategies. As a result of the acquisition, Equinix will serve more than 400 customers in Iberia, including brands such as L'Oreal, Vueling, Deloitte, BNP Paribas, Repsol, Real Madrid, Bank of America, and Aon.

According to The Global Interconnection Index, interconnection is becoming an essential building block of the digital economy. These in Spain and Portugal will allow the company to provide additional capacity in key markets, and the Itconic acquisition will position Equinix to support growth in interconnection traffic between Europe, Latin America and Africa driven by new submarine cable systems, which will enable accelerated traffic globalization and data consumption, and rapid growth of cloud and online services. Some of the submarine cables already connected to Itconic’s Lisbon data centre are ACE (African Coast to Europe), WACS (West Africa Cable System), Tata Global Network. The MainOne cable will be connected in the future. In addition, the data centre in Seville is connected to Canalink.

The acquisition of Itconic, which generated approximately €55.5 million or approximately $66.8 million dollars of revenues for the period Q2 2017 annualised, further extends Equinix’s ability to provide businesses with the direct and secure connectivity they need to expand their global reach in new and existing markets.

In addition, more than 100 network and mobility companies and more than 90 cloud and IT services companies operate at Itconic, including AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. This further strengthens the business ecosystems found inside of Equinix IBX data centres and provides customers with the broadest choice of service providers for IT and multi-cloud deployments to accelerate business performance.

Faustino Jiménez, CEO of Itconic, said the acquisition reinforces their vision of how technology can transform the way companies do business. He added: “With our incorporation into Equinix's global platform, companies operating in the Iberian Peninsula will finally be able to access the largest network of interconnected data centres in the world and take advantage of its more than 180 centres in 44 different markets.”

The acquisitions will add more than 250 employees to the Equinix team in Europe. Many members of the CloudMas team have earned certifications for deployment and support of services on leading cloud platforms.

The agreement was signed on 8 September 2017 and the acquisition is expected to close in Q4 2017, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approval.





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