Thomson Reuters Unveils $50M Data Center

Financial publisher Thomson Reuters (TRI) has officially opened a new $50 million data center in Eagan, Minnesota and is talking confidently about building another data center at the site, and perhaps as many as three more.

The 80,000 square foot facility went online in March, and supports online services for more than 15 Thomson Reuters businesses. The company was formed by the recent merger of The Thomson Corporation and Reuters Group PLC. The new building is the third data center that Thompson has built on its 270 acre campus in Eagan, and chief operations officer Richard King said the company may begin construction on a fourth data center at the site later this year. Long-term plans call for as many as six mission-crticial facilities on the campus.

Thomson Reuters plans for its data center operations have been of interest to securities analysts tracking managed hosting company Savvis (SVVS). Reuters is a large client for Savvis, with a hosting and network services agreement worth in the neighborhood of $50 million. Savvis' contract with Reuters was scheduled to expire this month. During the company's conference call with analysts last month, Savvis Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Von Deylen said Thomson Reuters "haven't given us any clear signals one way or the other which way they're going."

It's not clear whether Thomson Reuters' expansion of its data center facilities in Minnesota has any bearing on the services Reuters was purchasing from Savvis. We placed an inquiry with Savvis about the status of the Reuters contract, but have not gotten a response yet. We'll update if we do.