Verizon Sells Data Centers To Equinix

Reports first emerged in January that Verizon was considering a data center sale, but the telecom giant made it official in December, announcing plans to sell its cloud hosting and data center business to global data center operator Equinix in a deal worth $3.6 billion.

The $3.6 billion cash deal is giving Equinix 29 additional data center buildings across 24 data center sites in U.S. and Latin America. This will bring Equinix's data center footprint to 175 buildings in 43 global markets.

By offloading its data center business, Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Verizon can focus on its core connectivity and wireless business, similar to what its carrier competition is also doing.