CFO OF INTERXION MOVES TO ATLASEDGE

Broadband and communications company Liberty Global, and Digital Colony has today announced the creation of AtlasEdge Data Centers, as a new European edge data center business.

The formation of AtlasEdge is based on the creation of a proposed Joint Venture (JV) transaction between Liberty Global and Digital Colony which is expect to close in Q3 2021, subject to receipt of customary regulatory and merger control approvals.

“Combining Liberty Global’s technical real estate and track record in building successful, sustainable businesses with Digital Colony’s expertise in digital infrastructure investment creates an exciting platform for growth that will deliver long-term value,” said Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global.

“The proposed joint venture presents significant growth opportunities as we look to build this business into a leading European edge data center operator. Furthermore, since several of our operating companies will become anchor tenants, Liberty Global customers will also benefit from better and more responsive services.”

Based on the JV agreement, Liberty Global will contribute digital infrastructure assets, including its technical real estate portfolios – at levels consistent with European digital infrastructure valuations, and also provide strategic and operational support to the business. Digital Colony on the other hand, will provide operating expertise, strategic direction and capital to support the significant growth and consolidation opportunity in edge co-location services across Europe.

With plans to operate over 100 edge data centers in Europe, AtlasEdge will be supported by anchor tenancies from Liberty Global operating companies in four European countries: Virgin Media in the UK and in Ireland, Sunrise-UPC in Switzerland and UPC in Poland. AtlasEdge will also provide infrastructure services to third parties at the edge with a focus on cloud providers, streaming services and enterprises for high-performance, scalable and secure facilities through which they can distribute low-latency applications and services such as 5G, gaming, IOT and edge compute.

“We are excited to be partnering with Liberty Global on the development of AtlasEdge. The proposed joint venture will unlock the growth potential of Liberty’s digital real estate holdings and capitalize on the emerging demand we are seeing for edge compute across Europe,” said Marc Ganzi President and CEO of Colony Capital and CEO of Digital Colony.

Upon closing of the JV, the CFO of Interxion Josh Joshi, will join and lead AtlasEdge’s Board of Directors as Executive Chairman.