Telx Buys 111 Eighth Meet-Me-Room

Telx has acquired the meet-me-room business of NYC Connect at 111 Eighth Avenue, one of New York's premier carrier hotel facilities, the companies said yesterday. The deal expands the national network of meet-me-rooms for Telx, which already operates an interconnection facility at 60 Hudson Street, Manhattan's other leading carrier hotel property. Last November Telx was acquired by GI Partners, and then signed agreements to lease and exclusively manage the Meet-Me-Rooms of 10 Digital Realty Trust facilities in the U.S. in addition to facilities Telx owns at 60 Hudson and the 56 Marietta carrier hotel in Atlanta.

"Defining the standard for Meet-Me-Room operations has been a longstanding mission of Telx, so owning the Meet Me Room in a premier facility like 111 Eighth Avenue in a market with one of the strongest demands for interconnection services in the world is very positive for us," said Telx CEO Eric Shepcaro, an industry veteran with experience at AT&T, Digital Island and Sprint who on Feb. 27 was appointed to lead Telx.

A meet-me-room is a dedicated facility within a multi-tenant data center or carrier hotel where providers can connect their networks with one another. The term is often used to describe facilities operated by building management, while tenant-operated facilities are typically described as Internet exchanges or interconnection centers.

NYC Connect, which is a partnership controlled by Taconic Investment Partners, LLC, was represented by Signal Hill in the transaction. The NYC Connect employees, including Co-founder and COO Tesh Durvasula, will transition over to Telx. NYC Connect expanded its facilities at 111 Eighth last year.

"In executing this deal with Telx we immediately provide our customers a larger platform for their businesses," said Tesh Durvasula, co-founder and COO of NYC Connect. "This deal will also produce benefits for current and future Meet Me Room participants by introducing them to the national Telx marketplace for interconnection services."