TelecityGroup, Europe’s industry-leading provider of carrier-neutral data centres, has acquired Academica, a leading data centre and IT services operator in Finland, for a total consideration of €28million in cash.
The acquisition of Academica further strengthens TelecityGroup’s leadership position in Finland where there is a strong and growing demand for high quality, connected data centre services. Academica currently operates two carrier-neutral data centres in Helsinki with 1MW of operational capacity. 3MW of additional capacity is secured, some of which will be deployed in Viikinmaki, a new centrally-located facility.
This announcement follows TelecityGroup’s acquisition of Tenue Oy in August giving the enlarged TelecityGroup Finland a total of three data centres and 2MW of operational capacity. 7MW of additional capacity will be opened in two new facilities in due course. Helsinki is an emerging internet hub city demonstrating significant growth potential and offering easy access to Russia and the Baltic countries. TelecityGroup Finland’s customer dynamics reflect those of the wider TelecityGroup markets, and include major national and international enterprises, IT services, content and telecommunications companies.
Marko Vanninen, Managing Director of Academica, will become Managing Director of TelecityGroup Finland and Sami Holopainen, who joined TelecityGroup with the Tenue acquisition in August 2012 and was the founder and Managing Director of Tenue Oy, will become responsible for commercial and business development, sales and marketing.
Marko Vanninen said: “This is an exciting development for the data centre and IT services market in Finland. Combining our business with Europe’s leading provider of data centres will be a great boost and will help us take advantage of the growing demand from Finland and the wider Nordic region, Russia and beyond.”
Michael Tobin, CEO of TelecityGroup, said: “Along with TelecityGroup’s recent acquisition of Tenue Oy this will reinforce our position operating the most connected data centres serving the growing markets in both Finland and Russia. I am delighted to welcome the Academica team to TelecityGroup and look forward to working together.”
Finnish Industry Investment was a shareholder in Academica since 2011.