Reactions as Equinix is Set to Acquire Nigeria Based MainOne in a $320 Million Deal

Equinix, yesterday, announced its intended acquisition of MainOne, a leading West African data centre and connectivity solutions provider, with a presence in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. The acquisition has been pegged at $320 million.

The acquisition is expected to close Q1 of 2022 subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions including the requisite regulatory approvals.

Following the announcement, several people are already expressing their views about the intended acquisition.

Aside from the many congratulatory messages and accolades showered on the Funder of Mainone, Mrs Funke Opaka, some believe that there are suspicions in the deal.

A Twitter user Osamarine Victor Asemota said “who wants to do a Twitter space conversation about the MainOne deal tonight? We should do more analysis of these things more often. Something doesn’t quite sit right with me on it. Was it competition they were afraid of? Why not sell to Google or Facebook?”

“Subsidy? If mainOne has at least 3 fibre termination in every state, lots of folks like me would walk around last-mile coverage, if their bandwidth cost would be reasonable. At supposedly less than 20% capacity utilization, deeper penetration would be the deal-breaker,” another Twitter user wrote.

“I am actually shocked to read about the deal just this morning. There was no indication that it was going to happen. And to be selling to a relatively unknown buyer again! I remember stories about the owner in the papers about some management issues, maybe that contributed to it,” Adewale wrote.

“Mainone had $200MM in debt financing right? They weren’t making enough to make a dent on those debts in the last 8 years. Their valuation isn’t that low.”

“You only know the true story of a company when you have access to their financial records. Most stories on Internet about companies’ successes are half-truths,” Francis wrote.

MainOne was founded in 2010. The company has enabled connectivity for the business community of Nigeria and beyond. MainOne’s assets include:

Three operational data centres, with an additional facility under construction expected to open in Q1 2022. These facilities will add more than 64,000 gross square feet space to Platform Equinix, in addition to 570,000 square feet of land for future expansions.

An extensive submarine network extending 7,000 kilometres from Portugal to Lagos, Accra and along the west African coast, with landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

A terrestrial network of more than 1,200 kilometres of reliable terrestrial fibre in Lagos, Edo and Ogun States. Connectivity to terrestrial sites extends across 65 PoPs (points of presence) in cities across Portugal, Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

Access to key internet exchanges enabling low latency to key global networks, including Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook.

An estimated 800+ business-to-business customers, including major international technology enterprises, social media companies, global telecommunications operators, financial service companies and cloud service providers.

Nearly 500 employees and a management team with a deep understanding of local and international markets.

The acquiring company, Equinix, on the other hand is comprised of 237 data centres across 65 metros and 27 countries, providing data centre and interconnection services for over 10,000 of the world’s leading businesses.

In a statement released yesterday MainOne founder, Mrs Opaka, expressed her delight with the acquisition. “Equinix will accelerate our long-term vision to grow digital infrastructure investments across Africa. I thank our founding shareholders led by Mr. Fola Adeola, MainStreet Technologies, AFC, PAIDF, FBN, Polaris and AfDB for investing in the MainOne vision to bridge the Digital Divide in Africa. With similar values and culture to what we have jointly built in twelve years, Equinix is the preferred partner for our growth journey. The MainOne team is excited about the partnership created through the acquisition, and we look forward to building our next chapter together,” she said.