MONTREAL – An investor group led by BCE Inc. has announced the completion of its acquisition of Canadian data-hosting company Q9 Networks.
With the takeover, Bell has more than doubled the number of data centres it owns across Canada that provide cloud solutions to business clients. The investor group also includes the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Providence Equity Partners, and Madison Dearborn Partners.
Headquartered in Toronto, Q9 operates 12 data centres in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, and will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity managed by its existing executives, including CEO Osama Arafat and President and COO Paul Sharpe.
"The Q9 team has established the company as a strong Canadian leader in data centre management. We look forward to applying our combined expertise and resources to help Q9 build on its success and grow over the long term. The combination of Q9's innovative data centre services with Bell's world-leading network and hosting infrastructure offers leading data centre and cloud solutions for private and public sector organizations of all sizes in Canada,” in a joint statement released by the group.
"Q9 is pleased to have the backing of such a strong investor group to help us meet the business-critical computing needs of organizations of all kinds across Canada," said Arafat.
Of the purchase price of $1.1 billion, Teachers', Providence and Madison Dearborn together contributed $430 million and Bell provided $185 million of the equity funding. New debt financing by Q9 also funded a portion of the acquisition price.
Bell Business Markets, the Bell unit that provides network connectivity, data hosting and other managed services to business clients across Canada, has concluded a commercial arrangement with Q9 to enable the continued growth of their respective businesses and to drive shareholder value.
