Fortress Buys arvato to Boost Modular Capabilities

Fortress International Group consults on data center design, which is rapidly evolving, particularly in regards to modular architecture. This is part of the impetus behind the data center consulting and engineering specialist's acquisition of the data center integration services business from arvato digital services for $1.5 million.

This acquisition expands Fortress' capabilities so it can perform a full range of services both to the rack, and inside the rack. The acquisition is expected to generate over $10 million of annualized revenue and be accretive to Fortress International Group’s results in the second half of 2013.

"We are very excited to expand our data center services offerings to include integration services of IT equipment,” said Anthony Angelini, CEO of Fortress, which is perhaps best known for its Total Site Solutions brand. “This acquisition is strategically significant and will be financially accretive to our business.  Strategically, the acquired integration business is an ideal complement to our current offerings in both the traditional and modular data center markets.  As the company evolves, our ability to perform a full range of services for data center customers both to the rack, and now inside the rack, will enhance the value proposition that our customers gain by trusting their data center requirements to us."

About arvato

arvato provides custom rack layout design and configuration for large enterprise IT solutions consisting of large banks of computer servers, digital information storage and networking equipment, with custom cabling, power and cooling within data center racks and mobile or containerized data centers.

The business also includes testing and deployment, including onsite installation and network set-up of completed data center racks and mobile or containerized data centers. Additionally, the business provides configuration services including the configuration of IT equipment, which consists of loading applications or systems software, customizing memory or storage capacities, adding peripherals, and testing (including hardware power-up testing, diagnostics and software boot testing).

"Modular data center services represent an important and growing business for us, and, with this acquisition, we now offer an unmatched set of capabilities to the overall data center market and particularly the modular data center space," said Angelini. "The transaction represents a key step along our strategic roadmap, and we are very excited about the team of people joining us as a result of the acquisition. We anticipate a number of synergies in both business development and cost savings as we integrate our sales teams, existing customers and management teams. The transaction further provides an enhanced end to end solution to both existing and potential customers."

Fortress (FIGI) also said this week that it had secured a new credit facility through Bridge Bank to support the company's growth strategy and provide financial flexibility. The facility provides a line of credit up to $6 million over the next two years.