Telecity Group plc (formerly TelecityRedbus and before that Telecity), was a European carrier-neutral datacentre and colocation centre provider. It specialised in the design, build and management of datacentre space. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange[2] until it was acquired by Equinix in January 2016.[3]

Telecity Group plc
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryInternet, Data Center, Colocation
Founded1998
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Key people
John Hughes (Chairman of the board), Michael Tobin (former CEO)
ServicesData centres
Revenue£348.7 million (2014)[1]
£90.0 million (2014)[1]
£59.7 million (2014)[1]
ParentEquinix
Websitewww.telecitygroup.com

History

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Telecity Group plc was the result of the uniting of three separate companies – TeleCity Limited, Redbus Interhouse Limited and Globix Holdings (UK) Limited. TeleCity Limited was founded by Mike Kelly and Anish Kapoor from Manchester University in April 1998 and opened its first data centre in Manchester. At that time 3i Group made an investment of £24 million in the Company.[4]

In July 1998, Redbus Interhouse Limited was incorporated, and commenced operations in its first data centre in London Docklands in July 1999. By March 2000, Redbus Interhouse Limited floated on the main market of the London Stock Exchange and in June 2000, TeleCity Limited’s parent company, TeleCity plc floated on the London Stock Exchange.[5]

In September 2005, TeleCity plc was taken private by 3i and Oak Hill and by October of that year Telecity Group plc was incorporated and became the holding company of Telecity plc and its group companies in November 2005. In January 2006 Telecity Group acquired Redbus Interhouse plc, a rival business,[6] resulting in the two business, TeleCity and Redbus, trading under the name of TelecityRedbus. Later in 2006 Telecity Group plc bought the European assets of the US-based Globix Corporation.[7]

Following a rebranding exercise implemented in August 2007, TeleCity, Redbus and Globix (UK) began to trade under the name TelecityGroup. In October Telecity Group plc listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.[8]

In August 2010, TelecityGroup acquired Internet Facilitators Limited (IFL), a provider of-carrier neutral data centres in Manchester.[9] In August 2011 TelecityGroup acquired Data Electronics, which operates two carrier-neutral data centres in Dublin,[10] and in September 2011 UK Grid, a carrier-neutral data centre operator in Manchester was acquired.[11]

TelecityGroup has announced it is expanding its data centre capacity across Europe. At the end of 2011 the company had 68 MW of available customer power and this will be increased to 124 MW by 2016. As part of this expansion the first phase of a new 9 MW data centre was opened in Amsterdam (Southeast AMS 5) in early 2012, and on 2 July 2012 Ed Vaizey, UK Minister for Communications, officially opened the first phase of a 21 MW expansion at the company's London Powergate facility.[12]

In August 2012, TelecityGroup acquired Tenue Oy, a provider of carrier-neutral data centres in Helsinki, Finland.[13] In November 2012 TelecityGroup acquired Academica, a data centre and IT services operator, also active in Finland[14] since 1996,[15] giving the enlarged TelecityGroup Finland a total of three data centres and 2MW of operational capacity; 7MW of additional capacity will be opened in two new facilities in due course.[13]

In May 2013, TelecityGroup acquired SadeceHosting, a provider of data centre and hosted services in Istanbul, Turkey[16] and in November 2013, TelecityGroup acquired 3DC, an independent data centre provider in Sofia, Bulgaria.[17]

In August 2014, Telecity’s founder Michael Tobin left the company following reported tensions with the board of directors.[18][19][20]

In February 2015, it was announced that Telecity would merge with Interxion, purchasing it in a $2.2 billion deal, thus creating a joint data-center operator, with a combined value of $4.5 billion. According to the two CEOs, a deal promised to deliver around $600 million in synergy savings.[20][21]

In May 2015, US data company Equinix announced it would be acquiring TelecityGroup for £2.35 billion ($3.6 billion), which would terminate Telecity’s deal with Interxion.[22] Reuters reported that the acquisition of Telecity by Equinix would create the largest data center company in Europe. On 13 November 2015, the European Commission granted clearance for the Equinix offer to acquire Telecity.[23] As part of this acquisition, the European Commission required divestment of eight of the datacentre sites on competition grounds, and these sites were sold to Digital Realty for $874 million.[24][25]

In January 2016, Equinix announced that it had completed the Telecity acquisition in a transaction valued at approximately $3.8 billion. The addition of Telecity data centers more than doubled Equinix's capacity in Europe, making the company the region's largest retail colocation provider.[26][27]

Operations

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The company operated 37 data centres, located in several European cities:[28]

  • Amsterdam – 6 (Gyroscoopweg, Science Park, Southeast Amsterdam 2 (Zuidoost), Amstel Business Park, Duivendrechtse kade - Southeast Amsterdam 5 - (Zuidoost))
  • Dublin – 4 (City West Business Campus, Kilcarbery Park, Northwest Business Park Unit 2, Northwest Business Park Unit 14)
  • Frankfurt – 2 (Lyoner Strasse, Gutleutstrasse)
  • Helsinki – 5 (Hiomo, Suvilahti, Sinimäki, Viikinmäki, Hansa)
  • Istanbul - 1 (SadeceHosting)
  • London – 8 (Prospect House - Tottenham Court Road, Oliver’s Yard - Old Street, Powergate - Acton and in Docklands, Sovereign House, Meridian Gate -, Bonnington House, 8&9 Harbour Exchange and 6&7 Harbour Exchange.
  • Manchester – 4 (Willams & Kilburn House, Reynolds House, Synergy House, Joule House)
  • Milan – 3 (Via Savona, Basiglio, Via Cascia)
  • Paris - 3 (Energy Park, Victor Hugo, Condorcet)
  • Sofia - 1 (Sofia-1)
  • Stockholm - 2 (Stockholm 1- Bromma, Stockholm 2 - Skondal)
  • Warsaw - 2 (Warsaw 1(LIM), Warsaw 2)

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Preliminary Results 2014" (PDF). Telecity Group. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  2. ^ "TelecityGroup to list on London Stock Exchange to fund expansion". Citywire. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  3. ^ "Equinix Closes Its Blockbuster $3.8B TelecityGroup Acquisition". Data Center Knowledge. 15 January 2016. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  4. ^ "3i divests stake in Telecity Group". 11 February 2010. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  5. ^ "Web exchanges operator Telecity plans £1bn summer flotation". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 October 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  6. ^ "Web Host Industry Review". Archived from the original on 23 October 2008. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  7. ^ Telecity Redbus to buy Globix UK Archived 27 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Nicolette Davey. "3i reaps rewards of Telecity revival". efinancialnews.com. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  9. ^ TelecityGroup Acquires Manchester Facility Archived 3 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine Datacentre Knowledge, 2 August 2010
  10. ^ "Telecity acquires Dublin's Data Electronics Group « Colocation & data centre consultants, London UK – colo-x.com". colo-x.com. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  11. ^ men Administrator (23 September 2011). "Telecity Group purchases UK Grid for £11.7m". men. Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  12. ^ "Telecity deploys next generation data-center". Bladewatch. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  13. ^ a b Telecity buys Finland datacentre operator Academica for €28m Archived 30 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine Computer Weekly, 5 November 2012
  14. ^ "Academica on nyt osa TelecityGroupia". 29 April 2013. Archived from the original on 29 April 2013.
  15. ^ "Academica". 28 December 1996. Archived from the original on 28 December 1996.
  16. ^ "Telecity acquires Turkish datacentre company". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  17. ^ "TelecityGroup buys Warsaw, Sofia data centers". Datacenter Dynamics. Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  18. ^ Fildes, Nic (27 August 2014). "Telecity shows its 'maverick' Michael Tobin the door". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  19. ^ Ahmed, Murad (26 August 2014). "Telecity chief executive Michael Tobin makes abrupt departure". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  20. ^ a b "Telecity and Interxion announce merger". www.datacenterdynamics.com. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  21. ^ Zekaria, Simon (11 February 2015). "Telecity, Interxion to Merge in Data-Center Deal". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  22. ^ "Equinix to buy TelecityGroup for $3.6 billion, Interxion deal ended". Reuters. 29 May 2015. Archived from the original on 16 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  23. ^ "European Commission Grants Clearance for Equinix Offer to Acquire Telecity". PR Newswire. 13 November 2015. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  24. ^ "Equinix agrees to divest eight European assets to Digital Realty Trust Inc". Archived from the original on 20 November 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  25. ^ Davies, Jamie (6 July 2016). "Equinix sells off 8 data centres for $874m". Telecoms.com. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  26. ^ "Equinix Closes Its Blockbuster $3.8B TelecityGroup Acquisition". Data Center Knowledge. 15 January 2016. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  27. ^ Research, Zacks Investment. "Equinix (EQIX) Completes Much-Awaited Merger with Telecity". Zacks Investment Research. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  28. ^ "Colocation Data Centres in Europe - TelecityGroup". telecitygroup.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.