Bell announced that it has entered an agreement to sell 25 data centre facilities to California-based Equinix, a global interconnection and data centre company, for $1.04 billion CAD.
The carrier says this transaction reinforces its strategy to focus investment on its network infrastructure, content and services. Bell says that Equinix will be able to maximize the opportunities these facilities represent for Canadian businesses in an increasingly global and interconnected data sector.
Equinix is acquiring 13 sites representing 25 Bell data centre facilities in eight cities across Canada. Bell will continue to own and operate five other data centres that are located in its network central offices in Calgary, Halifax, Saint John, St. John’s and Toronto.
“As part of ensuring a seamless customer experience for our enterprise clients, we are also pleased to announce today a partnership between Bell Business Markets and the Equinix Platform of global data centre services,” Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said in a press release.
Bell Business Markets is now the first Equinix Platinum Partner in Canada, which will provide Bell enterprise clients with access to Equinix’s advanced integrated network and cloud solutions.
“We look forward to working together to enhance the reach of our customers’ growing global digital operations while ensuring Canada remains a world leader in digital transformation,” said Tom Little, the president of Bell Business Markets, in a press release.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2020 subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.
Bell is following Vidéotron and Cogeco, which have both also sold their data centres in 2018 and 2019. It’ll be interesting to see if more Canadian telecom companies do the same in the future.
Source: Bell
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