Yesterday CenturyLink completed the sale of its data centers and colocation business to a consortium of private equity buyers that they announced last November. That consortium, which includes BC Partners, Medina Capital Advisors, and Longview asset Management, has re-launched the assets as part of a new company, Cyxtera Technologies.
Cxtera begins its life with 57 data centers making up a footprint that spans 2.6 million square feet of raised floor capacity and 195MW of power. Along with the CenturyLink infrastructure, the new entity includes the four smaller companys Cryptzone, Brainspace, Catbird, and Easy Solutions. Taking the helm as CEO is Manuel Medina, former CEO of Terremark before the sale to Verizon and the driver behind consortium member Medina Capital Advisors.
Verizon’s sale of those Terremark assets (and others) to Equinix also closed the other day, coincidentally.
Meanwhile, CenturyLink ks keeping a foothold in the company with a stake of about 10% to go along with net cash of $1.86B before taxes. Those funds will go toward the company’s larger purchase of Level 3 Communications, which is still expected to close in Q3. CenturyLink has retained the hosting and cloud assets that run out of those data centers and will be a significant tenant of Cyxtera both for their own capacity and for ongoing sales to customers. Some 700 CenturyLink employees have made the shift over and will be needing new business cards.
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Categories: Datacenter · ILECs, PTTs · Mergers and Acquisitions
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They don’t include addresses of their data centers in their datasheets. However, their Chicago location descriptions resemble those of Equinix.
They mention interconnection on every datasheet I’ve looked at so far. Given their previous owner, I doubt there is a single IX in any of their facilities. Also, their St. Louis facility has two providers… AT&T and Verizon Business. I can’t imagine any two companies more opposed to interconnection than those two. There also isn’t any competitive glass anywhere near there, so that isn’t likely to be fixed anytime soon.
Why would there not be a physical address listed?
Savvis acquired most if not all of the Exodus Communications locations in the SF Bay Area. CenturyLink acquired Savvis (branded as CenturyLink Technology Solutions). So you may be able to find some locations under Exodus Communications, Savvis, CenturyLink Technology Solutions, or even CenturyLink. They may also just be a tenant leasing space (and sub-leasing space) from other facility providers such as Digital Realty. I know that XO Communications had fiber pulled into most if not all of the Exodus Communications locations in the SF Bay Area. They should have fiber connectivity to CenturyLink’s network as well as the ones you mentioned. I hope this helps.
interesting that this collection of low power, 1996-era Exodus and late 1990’s Qwest cybercenters sold for billions. while most of the DC industry worries about useful life, and state-of-art efficiencies, this sale suggests that there remains a market for last-gen capacity. Either the market is overheated and/or telco/data center improvements are a better long term investment than other asset classes (office, retail, hospitality) that would not have any value 20+ years later