# Shaw Communications (Canada) buys Viawest (US Datacenters)



## drmike (Aug 1, 2014)

Shaw Communications is buying ViaWest, a US datacenter owner for $1.2 billion.

Viawest has 27 datacenters in the United States.


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## Francisco (Aug 1, 2014)

It's 1.2B now? I thought it was 820M....

This is a pretty interesting move. I know shaw had their big-o-pipe brand for a while but that became

Shaw Business Solutions.

I just don't see how a ton of different datacenters makes sense.

Francisco


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## drmike (Aug 1, 2014)

Seems like they are competing with Cogeco who did the Peer1 deal... To me at least it seems that way.

It's mountain top building / consolidation.  Mergers and acquisitions continue to be a relatively strong thing in this extended blah economy in the US.


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## Francisco (Aug 1, 2014)

drmike said:


> Seems like they are competing with Cogeco who did the Peer1 deal... To me at least it seems that way.
> 
> It's mountain top building / consolidation.  Mergers and acquisitions continue to be a relatively strong thing in this extended blah economy in the US.


Maybe.

It's just an odd purchase to me since Shaw doesn't really offer datacenter space.

Hell, the only datacenters I know of that have/had actual SBS is Rackforce I think (a DC in Kelowna).

Everyone else is just peering POPs with them.

Francisco


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## drmike (Aug 1, 2014)

Francisco said:


> Maybe.
> 
> 
> It's just an odd purchase to me since Shaw doesn't really offer datacenter space.


Well now they per se do.

I am vaguely familiar with ViaWest.  Never toured their datacenters.   Any else here want to comment on their buildouts?  Are they actually the DC owner or sub-leasee with build out in other folks DC's?

$1.2 billion sounds like a lot of cash, but 27 datacenters seems oddly high.  Two could work just fine I suppose.


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## iWF-Jacob (Aug 1, 2014)

drmike said:


> Well now they per se do.
> 
> I am vaguely familiar with ViaWest.  Never toured their datacenters.   Any else here want to comment on their buildouts?  Are they actually the DC owner or sub-leasee with build out in other folks DC's?
> 
> $1.2 billion sounds like a lot of cash, but 27 datacenters seems oddly high.  Two could work just fine I suppose.


The ViaWest location in Portland, OR is pretty nice. Almost put some equipment there.


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## concerto49 (Aug 1, 2014)

drmike said:


> Well now they per se do.
> 
> I am vaguely familiar with ViaWest.  Never toured their datacenters.   Any else here want to comment on their buildouts?  Are they actually the DC owner or sub-leasee with build out in other folks DC's?
> 
> $1.2 billion sounds like a lot of cash, but 27 datacenters seems oddly high.  Two could work just fine I suppose.


Yeah they own a lot of the DCs. At least the suites. We're with them in Dallas for some of our servers. Pretty nice. Nothing's changed so far.


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