Equinix, the world’s digital infrastructure company has acquired MainOne Cable Company, a West African data centre and connectivity solutions provider based in Nigeria.
The announcement was made today and the acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. MainOne has a presence in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana and the acquisition is valued at $320 million.
MainOne was founded by Funke Opeke in 2010 after noticing the poor internet connectivity among Nigerians, after her return from the U.S. She built MainOne as West Africa’s first private company; with open access undersea high-capacity cable submarine.
The acquisition of MainOne comes after Equinix expanded to India. The company acquired GPX India for $161 million and also 13 data centres from Bell Canada for $780 million. Equinix has acknowledged that acquiring MainOne is the first step in its long-term plan to become an African carrier of a neutral infrastructure company.
MainOne is currently used by over 800 B2B customers which include social media companies, cloud service providers, telecommunication operators and major international technology enterprises. They also have 1,200 kilometres of fibre network across southern Nigeria in Ogun, Lagos and Edo states.
MainOne has plans to open an additional factory in the first quarter of 2022 which is a move that sits well with Equinix’s acquisition.