Equinix adds 13 Canadian datacentres to its portfolio as $178m Bell acquisition completes

Colocation giant Equinix has added an additional 500 new companies to its Canadian customer base following the closure of its $780m acquisition of local datacentre operator Bell.

The deal, initially announced in June 2020, will see Equinix increase the number of datacentres it operates in the country by 13, which equates to another 1.2 million gross square feet of datacentre capacity being added to its overall server farm portfolio.

In total, it now means the company operates 15 datacentres in Canada, including two in Toronto that have been operated under the Equinix brand since 2010 and 2015 respectively.

Through the acquisition, it now has a further four facilities in Toronto, as well as three others in Calgary, and single-site server farms in Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg, too. Equinix has also added an additional 160 employees to its workforce as a result of the deal.

With the acquisition now complete, the company said it will now set about deploying its software-defined networking-enabled Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric (ECX Fabric) interconnection service across these sites, so that customers can make datacentre-to-datacentre connections between facilities within its 220-strong server farm portfolio.

According to the company, the deal will serve to “solidify” Equinix’s position as Canada’s “leading digital infrastructure provider” focused on meeting the colocation needs of companies based in the country, and multinationals with satellite offices there.

On this point, Jon Lin, president of the Americas at Equinix, added: “It strengthens relationships with Canadian enterprises, many of which prefer local credentials and have multi-metro requirements, while enhancing relationships with global businesses looking to operate in the Canadian market.”

Jason Bremner, research vice-president of analyst house IDC, said the acquisition is a savvy move on Equinix’s part, given Canada is home to the 10^th largest economy in the world.

“It is also home to a thriving aggregation of multinational corporations that are seeking a clear and rapid migration path to digital transformation,” he continued.

“We expect to see Canadian spending on digital transformation reach C$28bn in 2020 with a growth rate of 7%, as companies look to accelerate their digital initiatives.

“This acquisition will offer both Canadian businesses and multinationals operating in Canada with a strong new option for building out and managing their digital infrastructure at key edge metros within the country,” he added.

The Canadian acquisition is the latest in a long line of deals the company has struck in recent times, as seeks to build on its market dominance within the colocation across the world, and tap into the demand its seeing for capacity from hyperscalers and enterprises a like.

These include last month’s acquisition of two datacentres in India, which has paved the way for its expansion into the country.

Meanwhile, data published in April 2020 by Synergy Research Group confirmed the datacentre market is already enjoying a record year of M&A activity, with the value of deals closed already exceeding 2019 levels just four months into this year.