Equinix wins $1bn race for Metronode

Equinix has snapped up data centre operator Metronode for a shade over $1 billion in cash, significantly expanding its capital city reach.

The buyout means Equinix now has floor space in Perth, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane, in addition to its previous core markets of Sydney and Melbourne.

Metronode brings an extra 20,000 square meters of gross colocation space to Equinix, which now has 15 data centres across Australia.

“As well as expanding our national footprint with Metronode’s existing sites, this acquisition also enables us to build out sites that are currently in development to further expand our presence in Australia,” Equinix Australia’s managing director Jeremy Deutsch said in a statement.

Metronode has been up for auction since August, and two prospective buyers - ST Telemedia and Equinix - were identified. Today’s announcement confirms Equinix as the winning bidder in the process.

Until now, Equinix’s local presence has been via its campus of Sydney facilities - SY1 through SY4 - and its single Melbourne data centre, ME1.

Equinix said its expanded Australian presence would “provide diverse second campus locations in its existing Sydney and Melbourne metros, providing customers with network-rich redundant options in these markets".

“In addition, these new campuses are hyperscale ready, enabling Equinix to support requirements from high-growth global cloud service providers,” it said.

The Metronode Perth facility is also home to the cable landing station for the forthcoming Vocus link between Perth and Singapore.

In addition, Metronode counts the NSW government as a major customer, after it signed a 2012 deal to consolidate 130 data rooms into two geographically-diverse Metronode facilities.

Metronode was fully-owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), which had taken a majority stake in Metronode’s former owner Nextgen Networks back in 2013.

OTPP upped its stake to full ownership of Metronode after other parts of Nextgen were sold to Vocus last year.

Equinix’s buyout is expected to close in the first half of 2018, subject to regulatory approvals.