When Equinix announced a surprise CEO change in January, the global interconnection and data center company vowed to maintain its growth strategy -- which includes plenty of acquisitions and partner engagements.
Fast forward a few weeks, and Equinix is making good on that promise. To wit, the company this month announced plans to acquire another data center -- Infomart Dallas -- for $800 million. And the company also had a major presence at the Oracle CloudWorld conference in New York last week.
On the M&A front, Infomart is one of the largest interconnection hubs in the U.S. The Infomart building generated approximately $50 million of revenues in 2017, of which approximately $20 million was attributed to rent and maintenance recoveries from Equinix, the company says.
Moreover, the 1.6 million gross-square-foot Infomart includes multiple fiber entry points, and provides significant expansion opportunities to Equinix through the existing underdeveloped capacity (approximately 11MW of power), as well as the potential to develop additional capacity (approximately 40MW of power) on land adjacent to the Infomart building, the company say.
Assuming all the regulatory and closing conditions are met, the buyout will close by mid-2018.
Equinix and Oracle Cloud Services
That deal surfaced around the same time that several Equinix executives were in New York for Oracle CloudWorld 2018.
Equinix now offers partners and customers high-speed, secure connections to Oracle's cloud. Robert Blackburn, global managing director for the Oracle strategic alliance at Equinix, described the cloud infrastructure interconnection strategy both on-stage and in a private meeting with ChannelE2E. Plus, Equinix is expected to surface at additional Oracle events throughout the year.
Overall, Equinix remains in growth mode. Revenue was $4.4 billion in Q4 2017, up 21 percent from Q4 2016. Moreover, the company expects to generate $5 billion in revenues for 2018, Equinix announced earlier this month.
Equinix: Growing Amid CEO Search
The growth forecast may potentially reassure partners and customers who were surprised when former CEO Steve Smith stepped down in January. At the time, Smith said he had reached the “difficult decision to resign as CEO, and from the Equinix Board of Directors, after exercising poor judgment with respect to an employee matter.”
Amid that vague statement from Smith, Executive Chairman Peter Van Camp was named interim CEO, and the board has been seeking a permanent replacement since that time.
Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.
