CenturyLink Sells Data Centre Network For £1.7bn

US communications firm CenturyLink is selling its global network of data centres for $2.15 billion and will use the proceeds to fund the acquisition of rival provider Level 3 Communications, a transaction announced earlier this week.

As rumoured, BC Partners is the buyer for the data centre business, but CenturyLink will continue to offer colocation services as part of an agreement with the new owners that will take effect once the takeover is completed. That is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2017.

CenturyLink had been keen to sell off its data centre business and had hoped to raise as much as $2.5 billion so it could focus on other areas like network services, managed hosting and cloud.

CenturyLink data centres

A number of other telcos, including Verizon, are also looking at offloading their data centre portfolios too.

In total, 57 data centres, accounting for 195 megawatts of power and 2.6 million square feet of floor space, are being divested to BC Partners. CenturyLink has five in the south east of England. These are located in Slough, Reading and London’s Docklands.

“We believe this transaction will benefit customers, employees and investors,” said Glen Post, CEO of CenturyLink. “Both CenturyLink and BC Partners have a strong customer focus and are committed to ensuring a seamless transition of the customers and their colocation environments.”

“CenturyLink has built and maintained an impressive global footprint of colocation data centres that is unparalleled for a portfolio of assets of this size,” added Justin Bateman, a managing partner at BC Partners.  We thank Glen Post and the entire team at CenturyLink for their partnership, and we look forward to working together to offer all the data centres’ existing customers, as well as new customers, unrivalled data centre and colocation services.”

CenturyLink’s acquisition of Level 3 Communications is expected to cost $24 billion (£20bn) and once completed, will result in the creation of the second largest domestic communications provider in the world. It will also give CenturyLink the scope to expand its fibre optic network and high-speed data services for its business customers.

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