Equinix Buys LA Data Center, Plans More Deals

Internet exchange service provider Equinix, Inc. has acquired a 107,000 square foot data center in the Los Angeles market, and is unveiling plans for additional expansion and data center purchases.

The center, located in El Segundo, will become Equinix's third IBX center in the Los Angeles area, and follows expansions announced by Equinix earlier this year in the Silicon Valley and Chicago markets. The new center will be acquired through a purchase, where Equinix will own the land, the building and the data center assets. It will provide Equinix with additional data center space to respond to strong customer demand in the Los Angeles market, particularly among the large aggregation of rapidly growing digital media companies in the region.

Originally built for Exodus Communications in 2001 at a cost of approximately $80 million, the 107,000 square foot stand-alone center was purchased for $34.5 million. Equinix conducted a rigorous review of all data center properties on the market in the Los Angeles area and identified this property to be the only center available to meet Equinix's high standards. The center, with its advanced power infrastructure, will add approximately 2,000 cabinets and will double Equinix's Los Angeles area footprint to more than 200,000 square feet. Equinix intends to open the new center for customers in the first half of 2006.

The center will be interconnected to Equinix's downtown Los Angeles IBX centers through redundant dark fiber links managed by Equinix. This interconnection fabric will enable occupants in each center to have direct access to each other as if they were in the same location, and it will provide immediate access to the more than 85 networks currently operating within Equinix's L.A. IBX.

Equinix also announced today that the company is considering future expansion plans to lease, buy or build data center properties in large metropolitan markets. Chief Financial Officer Ren