Today Equinix announced their intent to buy the whole IXEurope
Group including the Swiss operations in Zurich and Geneva.
I don't expect any changes other than a new logo and new email
addresses (with forwardings from the old ones). TIX will just
continue to operate as it did since I built it eight years ago.
It's nice to see my baby TIX (Telehouse Facilities AG, Zürich ->
IXEurope Switzerland AG) having grown so much and now becoming
part of the (now) global Equinix data center and Internet exchange
operator.
For all newcomers to the telco scene in Switzerland. I founded
the data center known as TIX or Telehouse Zürich in 1998 with
financial help from my friends Oliver Küpfer and Christoph
Lautenschlager. From 1998 till November 1999 when Nicole Bernet
(actually my wife since two weeks ago) joined I did almost every-
thing as a one-man show. It was very exhausting but it worked
out nicely. With Nicole we quickly accelerated the build out of
new space, first 3rd floor in Hard 235 and later 3rd floor in
Josef 225 and hired more employees to get all the work done.
The demand for space was incredible and was driving us to our
financial limits. At the same time we got approached by a number
of other venture financed pan-European data center operators.
Eventually IXEurope prevailed and made the best and most interesting
offer so we merged in October 2000. An IPO was planned for November
and I still remember the IPO preparations and procedures I had to
participate in as Country Manager of the Swiss operations. Due to
the detoriating market situation the IPO was cancelled and not
attempted again until April 2006. In December 2000 I decided to
move on with a new interesting project and to vacate my job as
IXEurope Switzerland Country Manager by February 2001. My bosses
at IXEurope gave me the task to select my own successor. I opted
for Frits van der Graaff (he's still the Country Manager) and
Nicole Bernet for Data Center Operations Manager (which she has
excellently done since she started). I moved to the Chairmain
of the Swiss board position until March 2003.
I want to thank all current and former IXEurope Switzerland (and
the other countries as well) for their hard work and dedication
to their job making it a huge success.
PS: Nicole got her own business now called Angelfood doing catering,
really nice team events and having a cooking lounge in Zollikon/Zürich.
It's really worth a visit: http://www.angelfood.ch.
--
Andre Oppermann
Press Release:
EQUINIX TO ACQUIRE EUROPEAN NETWORK-NEUTRAL DATA CENTER OPERATOR
IXEUROPE IN $482 MILLION DEAL
Equinix Continues Expansion Efforts to Further Strengthen Position as
Leader in Colocation and Network Exchange Services Market, and to
Provide Customers with Comprehensive Global Solution
Foster City, CA – June 27, 2007 (11:00 PM PT) – Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq:
EQIX), the leading provider of network-neutral data centers and Internet
exchange services, announced today its firm intention to make an offer
for the entire issued share capital of IXEurope Plc (“IXEurope”, AIM:
IXE), a provider of colocation services in Europe. The acquisition comes
as Equinix is in the midst of a more than $450 million expansion program
in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific since 2006, and it is expected to
strengthen Equinix’s market leading position by enabling the company to
offer a comprehensive global solution for customers.
Equinix will integrate IXEurope’s network-neutral data center business
and operations under the Equinix brand. IXEurope’s business includes 14
data centers comprising more than 380,000 square feet of net sellable
space throughout Europe, including centers in London, Zurich, Frankfurt,
Munich, Paris, Dusseldorf and Geneva. The company’s more than 450
enterprise and Internet customers include Merrill Lynch, Avis Europe,
Deutsche Boerse, Citigroup, Rackspace and SurfControl.
With the addition of IXEurope to Equinix’s announced expansions, Equinix
will have a total footprint of more than three million square feet of
data center space across 17 markets in the U.S., Europe and
Asia-Pacific, making it the most comprehensive, network neutral, global
service provider in the market. Equinix is targeting completion of the
transaction in mid-September 2007. The closing and its timing are
subject to the approval of IXEurope’s stockholders and the UK courts as
well as satisfaction or waiver of other closing conditions.
The acquisition will allow Equinix to immediately expand into the
European market, and it will enable Equinix to provide customers with a
single-source global solution for their data center and network
connectivity services. Despite the differences of the European market
and the existence of multiple network-neutral players in the market,
this acquisition offers Equinix a variety of benefits as the company
builds upon its market leadership in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific.
According to Tier 1 Research, global demand has outpaced supply by a
factor of nearly three to one over the last 12 months. The European
supply and demand imbalance is more than double the global rate with
demand outpacing supply by a factor of more than six to one.
“The strategic acquisition of IXEurope by Equinix will solidify
Equinix’s position as the world’s market leading colocation provider
with high-quality data centers across the United States, Asia-Pacific
and Europe,” said Steve Smith, CEO of Equinix. “Customers are
increasingly demanding global solutions as the colocation industry
continues to grow at double digit rates, and IXEurope has become one of
the top providers of colocation services in Europe, operating
high-quality data centers in key markets. Its integration into Equinix
will continue our growth and allow us to meet the increasing expansion
requirements of our global content, network and enterprise customers. We
look forward to welcoming the customers and employees of IXEurope into
Equinix.”
“Since its launch in 1999, IXEurope’s management has successfully
established 14 IXDatacentres in four countries (4 IXDatacentres since
its initial public offering in 2006), providing colocation services to
many blue-chip, international customers,” said Guy Willner, CEO of
IXEurope. “The combination of IXEurope’s European reach and operational
expertise with Equinix’s existing global operations will further extend
Equinix's market leading position and allow it to further leverage the
tremendous growth opportunities that exist in the colocation market
worldwide.”
The current management team, including Guy Willner, IXEurope CEO, and
Christophe de Buchet, IXEurope COO, will join Equinix and continue to
operate the European business. Equinix and IXEurope will assemble an
integration team comprised of senior managers to ensure a seamless
integration. Equinix’s European regional headquarters will be located in
London.
Financial Terms of the Transaction
The acquisition and related transaction costs are being financed out of
Equinix corporate cash reserves and unsecured debt financing under
committed facilities from Citigroup.
Under the terms of the acquisition, IXEurope shareholders will receive
125 pence, or approximately $2.50 per share in cash (at current exchange
rates), for each IXEurope share held at the Scheme Record Time, valuing
the existing issued share capital of IXEurope at approximately £241
million, or $482 million.
The Directors of IXEurope have agreed to recommend that IXEurope
shareholders vote in favor of the resolutions to approve the Offer at
the relevant shareholder and court meetings. Primary Shareholders
representing in aggregate, 120,460,826 issued IXEurope Shares,
(representing approximately 67 percent of the existing issued share
capital of IXEurope) have agreed, subject to customary limitations, to
vote in favor of the Offer at the relevant court and shareholder meetings.
Equinix will hold an investor conference call today at 8:00 a.m. Eastern
Time (5:00 a.m. Pacific Time) to discuss the details of this
announcement. To hear the conference call, please dial 773-799-3263
(domestic and international) at 7:50 a.m. (ET) and reference the
passcode (EQIX). A simultaneous live Webcast of the call will be
available over the Internet at www.equinix.com, under the Investor
Relations heading.
A replay of the call will be available beginning on Thursday, June 28,
2007, at 11:00 a.m. (ET) through July 30, 2007 by dialing 203-369-3287.
In addition, the Webcast will be available on the company's Web site at
www.equinix.com. No password is required for either method of replay.
About Equinix
Equinix is the leading global provider of network-neutral data centers
and Internet exchange services for enterprises, content companies,
systems integrators and network services providers. Through the
company’s Internet Business Exchange™ (IBX®) centers in 10 markets in
the U.S. and Asia, customers can directly interconnect with every major
global network and ISP for their critical peering, transit and traffic
exchange requirements. These interconnection points facilitate the
highest performance and growth of the Internet by serving as neutral and
open marketplaces for Internet infrastructure services, allowing
customers to expand their businesses while reducing costs.
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