Equinix, the world’s digital infrastructure firm, has announced the completion of its $320 million acquisition of West African data centre and connectivity solutions provider MainOne, marking the start of the company’s expansion into Africa.
Equinix’s long-term strategy to become a leading African carrier-neutral digital infrastructure firm will be bolstered by its ability to bring a broad spectrum of transformational technologies and connectivity to Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire with the completion of this transaction.
Platform Equinix will expand into West Africa as a result of this acquisition, enabling enterprises based both inside and outside of Africa access to global and regional markets. With around 142 million active internet connections, Nigeria has the greatest population and economy of any African country.
It has a lot of potential for expanding digital services because it is home to new innovative digital ecosystems in fintech, content, and digital media.
MainOne, based in Lagos, is one of the most interesting technology companies to emerge from Africa, according to Equinix, and Lagos is quickly becoming a vital connection hub for the larger West African region.
Founded in 2010 by Funke Opeke, the company has provided connections for the Nigerian business community and presently has digital infrastructure assets, including three operating data centres and a fourth facility in Lagos planned to open in April 2022.
MainOne’s assets include four operational data centers, which will add more than 64,000 gross square feet of space to Platform Equinix, as well as 570,000 square feet of land for future expansions; a 7,000-kilometer submarine network extending from Portugal to Lagos, Accra, and along the West African coast, with landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire; and a terrestrial network of more than 1,200 kilometers of reliable terrestrial fiber in Lagos, Lagos, Lagos, Lagos, Lagos, Lagos Access to 65 points of presence (PoPs) in cities across Portugal, Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire; access to key internet exchanges enabling low latency to key global networks such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook; and access to key internet exchanges enabling low latency to key global networks such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook; an estimated 800+ business-to-business customers, including major international technology enterprises, social media companies, global telecommunications operators, financial service companies and cloud service providers.
Nearly 500 employees and a management team with a deep understanding of local and international markets; the facilities currently generate approximately $60M annualized (Q2’21LQA) revenue with a purchase multiple of approximately 14x EBITDA.
Funke Opeke will continue to lead under the new brand of “MainOne, an Equinix company.”
Platform Equinix has 240 data centres in 66 metros and 27 countries across six continents, providing data centre and interconnection services to more than 10,000 businesses, including more than half of the Fortune 500.
The acquisition of MainOne is the most recent in a long line of significant acquisitions for the world’s digital infrastructure provider. Equinix has announced growth in South America with the anticipated acquisition of three Entel data centres to accelerate digital transformation prospects for local businesses and global organisations, following the news of its plans to acquire MainOne in December 2021.
Both acquisitions followed announcements to acquire 13 Bell data centres in Canada and two highly interconnected data centres in Mumbai through the acquisition of GPX India in October 2020 and September 2021, respectively.