Afrigather Equinix, the world’s largest world information heart and colocation supplier, has accomplished the post-acquisition integration of Nigeria’s MainOne following a $320 million acquisition in 2022.
Submit-merger integrations mix and rearrange two entities’ property, sources, and other people to make sure that the efficiencies that motivated the merger/acquisition might be realized.
“Equinix is a 25-year-old enterprise and publicly quoted. So there’s a course of they work with that we don’t apply right here,” stated a MainOne worker who requested to not be named so they might converse freely.
As a part of that integration, staff obtained new employment contracts. Whereas these contracts noticed staff obtain a pay bump, it was not as vital as they anticipated, two individuals with direct information of the matter stated. These variations in expectations triggered staff to delay signing the brand new contracts.
One other individual with direct information of the matter claimed the pay enhance would solely be mirrored in March 2025, when the corporate closes its books for the yr, and cited an inner survey that confirmed {that a} part of staff had been unimpressed with their pay packages.
“What they’re paying us is honest,” one other MainOne worker stated, noting that the salaries remained in naira however not sharing different specifics.
The combination took almost two years due to workload migration-the technique of transferring functions, information, and IT processes from throughout environments, two individuals stated.
This may contain shifting sources between bodily servers, digital machines, and even throughout completely different infrastructures, reminiscent of from on-premise information facilities to cloud platforms.
“Generally it takes that lengthy to combine techniques. There are lots of elements to think about: the scale of organisations, the distinction between their product portfolio, pricing, operation help system, and enterprise help system that they run,” one telecom business government who requested to not be named instructed TechCabal.
MainOne declined to touch upon any a part of this text.
Integration is normally the following crucial step after an acquisition. This usually requires a post-merger integration staff from each corporations to find out what wants integration – like company tradition and other people, operations and processes, expertise and IT techniques – and easy methods to do it. A post-acquisition integration can take so long as one to a few years, relying on when the staff determines easy methods to execute the combination blueprint with out disrupting operational effectivity.
This has been the story of most acquisitions involving corporations reminiscent of Econet, which was bought to Vodacom and struggled with company alignment till it was bought to Celtel which later bought it to Zain, and eventually to Airtel.
9mobile, acquired by LH Telecom, can be present process post-acquisition integration, and information centre operator Medallion was acquired by Digital Actuality in 2021.
MainOne will preserve its model as “MainOne, Options by Equinix,” whereas its information heart division, previously MDXi, will now function below the Equinix title. Funke Opeke stays the corporate’s total managing director, and the MDXi leaders will proceed to guide the information heart enterprise. A gradual integration of Equinix’s world tradition is anticipated.
The modifications set up Equinix as one of many distinguished operators within the Nigerian cable and information centre markets, a place the corporate occupied because it entered the market in January 2010 when it landed its submarine cable in Lagos. MainOne, Options by Equinix will proceed to focus on the web service provision and cable enterprise as a division below the Equinix group.
Equinix will launch three main information centre initiatives, together with an interconnection hub in Victoria Island, scheduled for completion in 2025, a 1000+ rack capability information centre in Lekki slated for 2026, and a knowledge centre in Port Harcourt, the place building has already begun following the touchdown of Meta’s 2Africa submarine cable.
This enlargement is well timed, as Nigeria is seeing rising demand for information centres to make the most of the capability of its eight submarine cables. The nation has 14 information centres with a mixed capability of below 70 megawatts. Different operators, together with Rack Centre, Medallion, and Open Entry Knowledge Centre (OADC), are additionally constructing bigger information centres.
Telecom giants like MTN and Airtel have introduced plans to enter the information centre market, making a extra aggressive surroundings for internet hosting providers.
“I feel it’s a good purchase for Equinix – secure entry into a big market the place their world clients have already got a presence so makes it simpler to serve them,” the telecom business government stated.
Equinix is enhancing its fiber community in Nigeria, with metro fiber already in place in Akwa Ibom. The corporate is now extending this fiber capability by way of the 2Africa cable to Port Harcourt in Rivers State, the place it’ll hook up with the newly deliberate information centre. There are plans to attach the whole South-South area utilizing fibre cables.
MDXi operated two information centres in Lagos, which at the moment are totally managed by Equinix. These centres will likely be interconnected with Equinix’s world community of 260 information centres throughout 71 cities in 33 nations. This interconnectivity permits seamless information sharing, content material supply, and backup redundancy by way of Knowledge Centre Interconnect (DCI) expertise, permitting for the motion of information throughout distances, whether or not inside Nigeria or over lengthy transoceanic routes just like the Pacific or Atlantic.
Nigeria marked Equinix’s first enterprise into the African market in 2022, and the corporate has since expanded to South Africa, the place it’ll launch a brand new information centres in Johannesburg on October 23, 2024.
