Contact: Andy Lawrence Daniel Bizo
Schneider Electric grows from pioneer to player in the modular datacenter business by acquiring AST Modular. Schneider was early in developing modules for components of datacenters (cooling, power, etc.), though it wasn’t until last year that it embraced fully functional modular datacenters such as AST’s as part of its strategy.
The deal, a small one for Schneider, won’t have much impact on its top line. Schneider had $31.5bn in 2012 sales ($4.9bn from its IT division), and 451 Research estimates AST’s annual revenue at $15m-25m. But it does bring Schneider an installed base of 450 datacenters (including emerging markets in EMEA and Latin America), important technology (notably AST’s cooling methods), a partnership with IBM and about 70 people.
The acquisition supports our thesis in a recent long-form report : while prefabricated datacenters began as a niche, serving as an alternative in areas where custom construction is challenging or cost-prohibitive, the technology is rapidly becoming a mainstream part of the datacenter business. The prefabricated modular datacenter market is expected to grow to $2.5bn in 2015 from $663m in 2012, according to that report.
We’ll have a full report on this transaction in our next 451 Market Insight.
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