On July 23, 2019, Compass Datacenters, LLC (“Compass”) announced that it completed its acquisition of ROOT Data Center (“ROOT”), a Canadian wholesale data centre provider, by way of share purchase.
The ROOT acquisition is the first investment by Compass outside the U.S. market since its recently announced plan to develop up to $3 billion in new data centre campuses. The ROOT acquisition included follow-on investments from existing investors RedBird Capital Partners and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, as well as from new investment partner, Azrieli Group Ltd.
ROOT, based in Montreal, gives Compass an immediate presence and customer base in one of the fastest-growing data centres markets in North America. Compass has also recently entered two other hyperscale markets, being in Northern Virginia and Phoenix. The acquisition also adds significant scale to the Compass platform and is highly complementary to Compass’s core strategy of serving high-growth hyperscale and cloud customers with dedicated facilities delivered on expedited timelines.
Compass serves cloud and SaaS providers, enterprises, colocation and hosting companies, and customers with distributed infrastructure requirements. Compass delivers build-to-order data centres it says are superior to competition alternatives.
ROOT is a next-generation data centre company that provides both enterprise and wholesale colocation solutions to empower the world’s computer leaders. Its modular design promises optimal agility and efficiency, which enables all customers to scale their technology infrastructure and grow with confidence.
McMillan LLP acted as Canadian counsel to Compass with a team lead by John Clifford, and included Laura Giesbrecht and Shannon Ste. Marie (Corporate); Stephanie Hamelin and Eve Lalancette (Commercial Real Estate); Eric Friedman (Financial Services); Michel Ranger (Tax); Shari Munk-Manel (Labour & Employment); Sharon Groom (Intellectual Property); William Wu (Competition and Antitrust); Bruce McWilliam (IT/Technology); and Christopher Garrah (Corporate/Insurance).
Wick Phillips LLP acted as U.S. counsel to Compass with a team lead by Rob Schroeder, and included Michael Bailey, Isaac Brown, Greg Fijolek and Kelly Wray (Corporate).
Dentons Canada LLP acted as counsel to ROOT Data Center with a team led by Jay Duffield, and including Jamie Thomas and John Papagiannis (Corporate); Chantal Sylvestre and Ismaël Bolly (Commercial Real Estate); Michael Henriques (Financial Services); Larry Nevsky and Mark Jadd (Tax); and Adam Goodman (Competition and Antitrust).
Torys LLP acted as counsel to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Riemer & Braunstein LLP acted as counsel to KeyBank National Association.
King & Spalding LLP acted as counsel to Goldman Sachs Speciality Lending Group, L.P.
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP acted as counsel to RedBird Capital Partners.