Cash is king, and in the information age data is just as important. Today, an investor group that includes Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Teachers), Providence Equity Partners (Providence) and Madison Dearborn Partners LLC (Madison Dearborn), and BCE Inc. (Bell) announced they have acquired 100% of Canadian data centre operator Q9 Networks Inc. for C$1.1 billion.
Under the agreement, Teachers, Providence and Madison Dearborn will contribute 70%, or C$420 million, of the equity funding and Bell will provide the remaining 30%, or C$180 million. New debt financing by Q9, already committed, will also fund a portion of the acquisition. The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2012, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.
“Q9 looks forward to working with these leading private-equity firms and Canada’s largest communications company, all of which have a strong track record of growing leading-edge companies like Q9,” said Osama Arafat, CEO of Q9 Networks. “They recognize the value of Q9 and its team, an exceptional Canadian company dedicated to providing organizations with highly secure and reliable data centre infrastructure services.”
Over the years, Q9 has built up data centers in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario,
