Equinix has completed the acquisition of BCE Inc's (Bell) 13 data centers and their operations in Canada. The US$780 million all-cash transaction includes more than 600 customers, of which more than 500 are new to Equinix, and approximately 1.2 million gross square feet of data center space. 

The 13 acquired data centers are expected to generate approximately US$112 million annualized revenue, which represents a purchase multiple of approximately 15x EV / adjusted EBITDA. The acquisition will be immediately accretive to Equinix's adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share, excluding integration costs.

The deal solidifies Equinix’s position as a leading digital infrastructure provider in Canada, enabling Canadian businesses, as well as multinationals with a presence in Canada, to leverage a trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure to power their success.

Equinix also announced that Andrew Eppich, a six-year veteran of Equinix originally from Toronto, has been appointed Managing Director, Canada. In this role, Eppich will be responsible for defining Equinix’s strategic vision to: develop the enterprise market; deliver a strong network of prospects, customers and channel partners; provide thought leadership to accelerate new business and revenue growth; and expand Equinix’s role as a trusted advisor to companies as they expand their digital infrastructure.

Jon Lin, President, Americas, Equinix, said this acquisition complements and extends Equinix’s strategy of expanding our global platform and enhancing cloud and network density to offer enterprises a path to digital success. "It also provides a unique opportunity for Equinix to expand its presence in the Americas and positions Equinix as a leading digital infrastructure provider in Canada. Further, 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, IDC said Canada is the third largest economy in the Americas, and the 10th largest globally. It is also home to a thriving aggregation of multinational corporations that are seeking a clear and rapid migration path to digital transformation. "We expect to see Canadian spending on digital transformation reach C$28 billion 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.”

Siobhan Cox, Vice President of Marketing, Bell, said: "As the first Equinix Platinum Partner in Canada, Bell is leveraging Equinix’s world-class data center operations and our leadership in network connectivity and cloud service innovation to enable the digital edge transformation of our customers’ operations in Canada and around the globe. Bell is excited to build on our joint momentum, which is already providing major benefits for a large Canadian investment services customer in our shared community through a migration of IT infrastructure to Equinix to facilitate a new Open Stack environment.”

Equinix’s global platform currently includes more than 220 data centers across 63 metros. As a part of the transaction, more than 160 employees, primarily in the operations functions of the 13 acquired data centers, joined Equinix effective today. Citi and J.P. Morgan acted as financial advisors to Equinix.

Equinix data center deal aids expansion across Canada

• Equinix’s expansion across Canada unlocks opportunities for Canadian businesses expanding internationally and for multinational corporations pursuing growth and innovation in the Canadian market. Canadian companies can benefit from the ability to accelerate their evolution from traditional to digital businesses by rapidly scaling their infrastructure, easily adopting hybrid multicloud architectures and interconnecting with strategic business partners within the Platform Equinix® ecosystem of nearly 10,000 customers.
• Equinix now operates 15 International Business Exchange™ (IBX) data centers coast to coast in Canada. In addition to the two Toronto facilities (TR1 and TR2, pictured) that Equinix has operated since 2010 and 2015 respectively, the company now operates four additional data centers in Toronto (TR4, TR5, TR6, TR7), three in Calgary (CL1, CL2, CL3), and one in each of the following metros:  Kamloops (KA1), Montreal (MT1), Ottawa (OT1), Saint John (SJ1), Vancouver (VA1) and  Winnipeg (WI1).
• Equinix plans to introduce Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric in the new data centers. ECX Fabric is an on-demand, SDN-enabled interconnection service that allows any business to connect between its own distributed infrastructure and any other company’s distributed infrastructure, including the world’s largest network service and cloud providers, on Platform Equinix.
• Equinix and Bell have begun a strategic partnership that delivers industry-leading joint offers in Canada and globally. This partnership will enable enterprises in Canada to leverage integrated networking and hybrid multicloud services, both directly and indirectly through the shared partner communities of Equinix and Bell, combining Bell’s telecommunication services and technology expertise with Equinix’s global platform of interconnected data centers and business ecosystems. This partnership also allows Equinix to engage with Bell reseller partners to build stronger relationships with the Canadian channel ecosystem.