ON MONDAY, Equinox Inc., a US digital infrastructure company, made its expansion into Africa public by announcing its intended acquisition of MainOne, a leading West African data center and connectivity solutions provider in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire, for $320m.
The acquisition is to close out in the first quarter of 2022. It is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including its requisite regulatory approvals.
Funke Opeke founded MainOne in 2010; MainOne provides the business community connectivity solutions, with a projected 800+ business-to-business customers, including major international technology enterprises, financial service companies, social media companies, global telecom operators, and cloud service providers.
It has three active data centers, an extensive submarine network extending 7,000 kilometers from Portugal to Lagos, Accra along the west African coast, with landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire. And an additional facility under construction, expected to begin operations in the first quarter of 2022. These facilities will add about 64,000 gross square feet of space to Equinix.
Equinix believes MainOne to be one of Africa’s most exciting technology businesses to emerge. Its acquisition of MainOne represents a critical point of entry into the vast and rapidly growing African market.
Charles Meyers, the CEO of Equinix, stated that Equinix aspires to be the leading neutral digital infrastructure provider in Africa because the growth of data consumption in Africa is amongst the fastest in the world.
Mainone’s management team, including CEO Funke Opeke, are to continue with their respective roles. Ms. Opeke holds a master’s in engineering from Columbia University and was named one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes in 2018 for her efforts in sparking internet adoption.
Its founding shareholders include Nigerian businessman and creator of Guaranty Trust Bank, Fola Adeola, MainStreet Technologies, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF), First Bank, Polaris Bank, and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
MainOne is excited about the partnership created through the acquisition, as it will accelerate their long-term vision to grow digital infrastructure investments across Africa.
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Photo Credit- https://www.equinix.se, https://www.mainone.net
