DataBank today agreed to acquire zColo, including certain U.S. and European data center assets, from Zayo Group Holdings, with the funds coming from debt financing. The DataBank zColo deal is expected to close at the end of the year.
The transaction, when completed, will give DataBank 44 more data centers including 13 key interconnect locations across 23 markets in the U.S. and Europe, bringing the company’s overall total to 64 data centers in 29 markets, continuing the trend of data center consolidation across the country.
Among the assets DataBank is acquiring are Zayo’s network hubs and carrier hotel facilities, making it one of the largest providers of network-neutral interconnections.
The deal will also provide DataBank with additional diversified, blue-chip customers that complement the company’s existing business relationships.
Colony Capital, Inc., DataBank’s controlling shareholder, is investing $145 million from its balance sheet to maintain its 20% stake in DataBank, with other investors also contributing to the deal, which will include debt financing underwritten by TD Securities, Truist Securities and Société Générale.
In addition to the data centers, with the completion of the zColo deal, DataBank will have:
- More than 3,000 customers, many of whom are Fortune 100, as well as some leading cloud and content providers
- 141 MW of installed UPS capacity
- More than 30,000 network cross connects
- 18 major network interconnection points
- 12 cloud nodes
- Annual revenue of more than $450 million (pro-forma)
“This highly complementary acquisition will allow us to serve customers better. The strategic rationale is fully aligned with our core ‘Data Center Evolved’ strategy built around providing customers broad geographic reach as they move their content and applications closer to the edge,” said Raul K. Martynek, CEO of DataBank, in a prepared statement about the DataBank zColo deal. “We look forward to integrating zColo into our portfolio while elevating our existing level of service to meet the increasingly diverse workloads of our enterprise customers.”