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REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — The digital infrastructure company Equinix is expanding its presence in South America through the acquisition of four data centers there.
Equinix is planning to acquire three data centers in the Santiago, Chile area and one in Lima, Peru for $705 million from Empresa Nacional De Telecomunicaciones, or Entel, a Chilean telecommunications provider, according to Equinix this month.
The acquisition is expected to close in Q2 of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. The transaction for the data center in Peru in particular is pending finalization of a definitive agreement.
Equinix believes Santiago, Chile is “emerging as a technology hub in South America,” serving both regional demand for the cloud and content as well as local enterprises.
The deal includes “significant expansion capacity” for growth in Santiago.
Under the agreement, Equinix and Entel have agreed to form a strategic partnership to enable enterprises in Chile and Peru to use hybrid multicloud solutions to “accelerate” their digital transformation.
The four data centers generate about $53 million of annualized revenue.
There are over 100 Entel customers operating in the four data centers that will become Equinix customers, with more than 75 of them being net-new customers.
About 120 Entel employees and contractors are expected to become Equinix employees.
The acquisition will bring Equinix’s total number of International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers to 15 in seven metros in five Latin American countries.
“This is an exciting time for Latin America. The growth Chile and Peru are experiencing is driving and expanding a new set of requirements around data center and cloud connectivity,” said Jon Lin, EVP and GM, data center services and president, Americas (Interim), Equinix.
Antonio Büchi, CEO of Entel, said the partnership allows the company to “focus our resources on businesses that add value to our customers.”
Büchi said the deal should “set an important milestone in our strategic plan to extend our offerings into delivering digital services and provide expertise with new solutions that will accelerate our clients’ digital transformation.”
