The deal has been approved unanimously by a special committee of Switch’s board of directors and will see shareholders of the publicly-listed data centre operator paid $34.25 per share in cash by the buyers to enable it to go private
Artist rendering of Switch data centres at Dell headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. (Credit: Switch)
Switch, a US-based data centre company, has agreed to be acquired by digital infrastructure firm DigitalBridge Group and an affiliate of infrastructure investor IFM Investors in a deal worth $11bn.
The consideration includes the assumption of Switch’s debt.
DigitalBridge will undertake the acquisition through its second flagship fund DigitalBridge Partners II.
Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, Switch specialises in developing hyperscale retail colocation data centres. Currently, the company is said to have over 950 customers.
The company has five primary campus locations called “Primes”. These are located in Las Vegas and Tahoe Reno in Nevada, Grand Rapids in Michigan, Atlanta in Georgia, and Austin in Texas.
Switch founder and CEO Rob Roy said: “Following our expansion into a Fifth Prime campus last year, and with our plan to construct more than 11 million additional square feet of capacity through 2030, Switch’s strategic position has never been stronger.
“The combination of our advanced data centre infrastructure, significant expansion capacity in our land bank, and a new partnership with experienced digital infrastructure investors lays a strong foundation for Switch’s continued industry leading growth.”
As per the terms of the deal, shareholders of the publicly-listed Switch will be paid $34.25 per share in cash by the buyers. The transaction will enable the data centre company to go private.
DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi said: “At DigitalBridge, we are building the world’s leading global digital infrastructure investment platform, and this transaction allows us to partner with one of the industry’s fastest growing and highest quality data centre portfolios.
“Rob and his team share our vision for the future of communications infrastructure, making us the ideal partner to scale their business both domestically and internationally to meet the exponentially rising demand from large enterprise customers looking for mission critical digital infrastructure.”
The deal has been approved unanimously by a special committee of Switch’s board of directors. Its closing, which is subject to approval from Switch’s stockholders and other customary conditions, is anticipated to close in the latter half of this year.