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Equinix<\/a>, an international data center company based in Redwood City, California, announced today that it has completed the purchase of 29 data centers from Verizon<\/a> for $3.6 billion. The deal was announced <\/a>in December.<\/p>\n Verizon owns AOL, which owns TechCrunch.<\/p>\n The acquisition\u00a0greatly expands Equinix\u2019s footprint, including giving it access to Latin America through a data center in Bogota, Colombia, along with a new presence in Houston, Texas and Culpeper, Virginia. The jewel in the acquisition, however, might be the new Miami location because it acts as a key internet connection point.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the fourth largest Internet exchange point in the U.S., [the Miami location]\u00a0hosts the termination points of 15 subsea cable systems and more than 120 global networks interconnecting to approximately 150 countries,\u201d the company wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n Equinix was also especially interested in the Culpeper facility, which it called \u201cone of the most secure and technologically sophisticated data center campuses in the eastern U.S.\u201d Taking ownership of Culpeper\u00a0should allow the company to\u00a0grow its government business.<\/p>\n With this purchase, Equinix now owns a total of 179 data centers worldwide.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that these data centers are co-location facilities, which are essentially data center rental facilities where companies bring their own servers, storage and other hardware and rent space inside someone else\u2019s facilities. The vendor takes care of all the maintenance and management of the overall facility, including access to the internet, power, cooling, security and so forth.<\/p>\n Equinix didn\u2019t just buy the facilities\u00a0themselves, it also got 250 of Verizon\u2019s employees in the deal, who become Equinix employees today and will continue to run the buildings. They also get 1,000 Verizon customers, who are using the data centers, of which 600 are new to Equinix.<\/p>\n Verizon isn\u2019t just cutting and running after the sale. Equinix reports it will continue to be a customer and partner selling Equinix co-location services, even after the deal closes. The idea is to pair Equinix\u2019s services with Verizon\u2019s\u00a0security, network and advanced communications services.<\/p>\n Verizon doesn\u2019t have to worry about maintaining the facilities, collects a substantial cash payment and still can continue to sell those services to customers. Equinix gets to own the facilities and gets access to new markets and new customers, as well as taking advantage of Verizon\u2019s sales and marketing clout.<\/p>\n Why buy 29 more data centers? Increasingly, companies want to move the data closer to the customer to reduce latency, Steve Smith, CEO, Equinix explained in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201c[Customers] are moving from traditional centralized infrastructure to a distributed model that keeps data closer to the customers, partners and employees using it,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n Essentially, companies don\u2019t want all of their data in a centralized location. They want to distribute it over\u00a0multiple locations and Equinix wants to help them do it.<\/p>\n