Equinix has agreed to acquire BT Group's Irish data center business for €59 million ($61.3m).
The transaction, expected to be completed in H1 of 2025, includes two operational data centers in CityWest and Ballycoolin, Dublin.
"The deal builds on our existing successful partnership with Equinix and ensures that customers will benefit from top-tier data center services nationally and globally, allowing BT to specialize in our core strengths in cloud, networking, and security," said Shay Walsh, managing director at BT Ireland.
BT's decision to divest is part of a broader strategy to transition away from owning and operating data centers and toward partnering with globally scaled organizations.
The Citywest data center is a 10MW carrier-neutral, purpose-built facility consisting of two independent data center buildings covering 120,000 sq ft (11,148 sqm) in Citywest Business Park on the south side of Dublin.
The Ballycoolin data center is a 3.5MW, 40,000 sq ft (3,716 sqm) facility on Dublin's north side. It has 7,000 sq ft (650 sqm) of fully allocated data halls. The data center is fully carrier-neutral and hosts four different network providers on-site.
In the coming months, Equinix will support the transition of the facilities from BT into its global network.
“We look forward to working closely with BT to ensure a seamless transition, welcoming their data center team and customers to Equinix and bringing the scale, expertise, and investment that next-generation data center facilities require for excellent service delivery for organizations in Ireland and globally,” Peter Lantry, managing director, Equinix Ireland, said.
Equinix has six operational data centers in Dublin. In 2022, the company joined a list of data center developers pausing projects in Dublin in the wake of a de facto moratorium in greater Dublin.
EirGrid issued the moratorium in January 2022 due to the high energy demand of the city's data centers. As a result, EirGrid has said it will not connect new data centers for ‘the foreseeable future’ and possibly until 2028.
