Data centers, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mergers and Acquisitions

LeaseWeb USA Acquires Seven Cloud Data Centers

William Schrader
William Schrader

LeaseWeb USA Inc. has acquired Nobis Technology Group, LLC, including its brand Ubiquity Hosting and seven data centers featuring dedicated and cloud service solutions across the United States. LeaseWeb now has 10 data centers across the continental United States, according to CEO William Schrader.

Take a closer look, and you'll discover that many online gaming companies host their applications in Ubiquity's data centers. Read between the lines and Ubiquity is known for high-performance, low-latency cloud computing that serves demanding customers.

Instead of forcing immediate changes across their respective customer bases, LeaseWeb says current Ubiquity Hosting customers will retain the same services and same pricing for the time being. Within the next few months, however, "LeaseWeb will be integrating the two company’s systems so that all customers may order services from all the combined facilities," the two companies said.

LeaseWeb expects major portions of the M&A integration to be completed by the end of 2016, offering "enterprise-level equipment, infrastructure redundancy and superior SLAs across all US-based facilities. Eventually, the company's add, Nobis customers will move to LeaseWeb’s portal, which offers remote management and gives customers full control no matter where they’re located.

Financial terms were not disclosed. DH Capital LLC, an investment banking firm, was Nobis Technology Group's financial advisor on the deal.

Data Center Buyers, Sellers, Mergers, Acquisitions

Overall, it seems to be a buyer's market for data centers. Major providers such as CenturyLink and Verizon Communications have contemplated selling their respective cloud data centers in recent months -- but big deals haven't emerged.

CenturyLink, for instance, hatched a plan to retain its cloud and managed services capabilities while seeking to sell off 60 physical data centers and the underlying real estate. Interested bidders allegedly emerged in early 2016, but the potential sale process apparently stalled along the way. Verizon, meanwhile, was seeking at least $2.5 billion for its data centers as of early January 2016, but no sale has emerge.

Smaller scale data center M&A deals have occurred, including Zayo's buyout of Stream Data Center's Dallas facility in January 2016; and TierPoint's purchase of a Chicago data center provider in December 2015.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.