Equinix to buy Metronode for $1.03bn

Equinix has arranged to purchase 100% of Australian data centre company Metronode in a deal worth $1.035 billion.

The deal with Metronode’s owner the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan will allow interconnection and data centre company Equinix to expand its footprint of International Business Exchange (IBX) branded data centres in Australia up to 15 from its current five.

Metronode generated around $60 million in revenue for the 12 months ending in September. The company operates three data centres in Greater Sydney, two in Melbourne, two in Perth and one each in Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Together they represent around 20,000 square metres of gross co-location space, as well as 60,000 additional square metres of land that could be used to build additional capacity at some of the facilities.

One of the Perth data centres will also be the landing station for the planned Vocus Australia Singapore Cable, a 40 Tbps subsea cable system linking Perth with Christmas Island, Jakarta and Singapore.

“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,” Equinix Australia Managing Director Jeremy Deutsch said.

“This will enable us to continue to deliver the level of excellence and interconnection that our customers expect, and signifies our commitment to the region in supporting the growth of digital businesses. We look forward to welcoming the Metronode team into the Equinix family.”

He said the enhanced footprint will allow Equinix to expand on Metronode’s relationships with government agencies in Australia. This includes Metronode’s operation of two data centres for the NSW Government’s GovDC data centre consolidation project.

The new facilities will take Equinix’s global data centre footprint up to 200 across 52 markets. The deal still requires regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2018.

Separately, Oracle has lodged an unsolicited $1.56 billion buyout offer for Melbourne-based cloud collaboration software developer Aconex.

Aconex directors have unanimously approved the $7.80 per share buyout offer and shareholders will vote on the offer in March.

The Aconex cloud solution is designed to manage team collaboration for construction projects. The platform covers document management, project controls and workflow management.

Aconex was founded in 2000 and now has 47 offices across 23 countries worldwide, as well as more than 70,000 customers across 70 countries.

If the acquisition closes, Oracle plans to combine Aconex and Oracle technology to develop a cloud offering for managing all aspects of construction projects.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/vectorfusionart

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