By Cecily Liu in London
A Chinese consortium has
bought a 49 percent stake in British data center company Global Switch for 2.5
billion pounds ($3.09 billion), in a strategic move aimed at sharing data
center technology and locations.
The consortium was set up by
data center company Daily-Tech Beijing, although the majority of the funding
comes from Jiangsu Shagang Group, China's largest private steelmaker.
Wednesday's deal came as
Chinese and Western companies expand into each other's markets, creating a big
demand to store data in international locations.
The partnership allows both
data center companies to follow their clients' expansion footsteps overseas and
help them store data in convenient locations.
Global Switch has begun building
data centers in Hong Kong and Singapore, using high-quality technology to help
Daily-Tech Beijing's clients store data.
John Corcoran, CEO of Global
Switch, said the investment will help Global Switch's global expansion and, in
particular, assist it in serving Chinese companies expanding overseas and
Western companies growing in China.
Founded in 1998, Global Switch
now has 10 data centers in Europe and Asia. It is owned by the billionaire
Reuben Brothers, who purchased it in 2004 for reportedly 585 million pounds,
but have invested more than 1 billion pounds in expanding the business.
Daily-Tech Beijing was founded
in 2009 and owns five data centers in China, providing data storage for Chinese
and multinational companies, including Schneider Electric, Johnson Controls,
China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile.
"We believe that bringing
together the high-quality data centers and operational excellence of Global
Switch with the rapidly growing demand from Chinese customers creates a perfect
match that will deliver future growth opportunities," said Li Qiang,
president of Daily-Tech Beijing.
Alan Barrell, entrepreneur in
residence at the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School, said the
partnership will help Daily-Tech Beijing achieve a bigger international reach
in data handling and storage and help Global Switch grow its business with the
new investment.
No comments:
Post a Comment