DataBank: DataBank closes Acquisition of Zayo's data centers

Dec 15, 2020 | Posted by Eric Bell

DataBank has closed deal to acquire 45 of Zayo's data centers across 20 markets in the US and UK. A second closing for zColo’s data centers in France is expected to be completed in Q1 2021.

The deal instantly transforms Databank into a large player in the colocation market. With zColo's facilities. DataBank now offers its customers access to:

  • 65 data centers in 29 markets (up from 20 data centers and 9 markets)
  • 1.1M raised square feet of data center space
  • 141 MW of installed UPS capacity


DataBank Press Release on December 15, 2020:
Dallas, TX  – DataBank, a leading provider of enterprise-class colocation, connectivity, and managed services, announced it has closed its acquisition of zColo data center assets from Zayo Group Holdings. With this transaction, DataBank now offers its secure colocation, connectivity, cloud, and managed services in 60 data centers spread across 28 key markets in the U.S. and U.K. A second closing for the five data centers in France is expected in Q1 2021.

This announcement comes on the heels of DataBank’s strategic investment in EdgePresence, which accelerates DataBank’s edge data center strategy by adding modular facilities to augment its traditional data center portfolio. These unique modular data centers provide the space, power, and bandwidth to further reduce latency and improve performance for key applications.

Combined, these two transactions put DataBank at the forefront of the edge infrastructure wave, enabling enterprises, hyperscalers, cloud, content, and software customers to move their mission-critical workloads and platforms closer to end-user populations in second-, third-, and fourth-tier markets.

“DataBank has now assembled a unique portfolio of data center infrastructure and network interconnect options to address customer workloads anywhere from Tier 1 markets to the far edge,” comments Raul K. Martynek, DataBank’s CEO. “With an open interconnect architecture and virtually unlimited geographic options, we are poised to help our customers in the U.S. migrate their workloads and adapt to the next evolution of the internet: the hyper-localization of data and compute being unleashed by 5G networks.”

With the closing announced today, DataBank now offers its customers access to:

  • 65 data centers in 29 markets (up from 20 data centers and 9 markets)
  • 1.1M raised square feet of data center space
  • 141 MW of installed UPS capacity
  • Over 30,000 network cross connects
  • 20 major network interconnection points
  • 13 cloud nodes
The addition of zColo’s facilities and footprint gives DataBank’s existing customers tremendous new options for geographic diversity, but it also gives zColo’s base of 1500+ blue chip customers access to DataBank’s deep reservoir of managed security, data protection, cloud and compliance enablement capabilities, creating a true win-win for customers.

The transaction was funded by an investor group led by Colony Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CLNY), DataBank’s controlling shareholder. In addition to leading a consortium of world-class institutional investors to support the acquisition, Colony Capital invested $145 million from its balance sheet to maintain its 20% stake in DataBank.

TD Securities led the debt financing for the transaction, and along with Joint Lead Arrangers & Joint Bookrunners Société Générale and Truist Bank, provided the underwriting for the $500 million First Lien Credit Facilities and the $100 million Second Lien Credit Facility. CoBank ACB, Regions Bank, and Natixis, New York Branch additionally acted as Joint Lead Arrangers on the First Lien Credit Facilities