The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition Shaw Communications is increasing its cloud computing and data centre capabilities with a $1.2-billion deal to buy Colorado-based ViaWest Inc. (all figures U.S.).
The Post's Armina Ligaya writes Shaw said Thursday it planned to acquire the privately held company from Oak Hill Capital Partners for $830-million, plus the assumption of ViaWest's $370 in net debt, for a total enterprise value of $1.2-billion.
Buying ViaWest, which has 27 data centres, allows Shaw to explore growth opportunities in the North American data centre market.
It also allows Shaw to to accelerate the development of its own Canadian data centre platform.
"The great thing about this is we have a management team that will be focused in the U.S.," chief executive officer Brad Shaw told analysts on a conference call. "And then as we decide to roll up and focus in on Canada, we'll be able to take that as it comes, and do this at a pace that we're comfortable with."
ViaWest will remain based in Denver as a stand-alone, wholly owned subsidiary.
The deal could be negative for Shaw shares in the near term as there are no obvious synergies between the two companies, said analyst Dvai Ghose.
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