- Details
- By Joe Boomgaard
- Economic Development
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Data Holdings LLC, a data center venture of the tribally owned Potawatomi Business Development Corporation, has expanded its capabilities and team with the acquisition of a long-time data center partner.
The deal for Milwaukee-based data center as a service provider Stack41 LLC will enable Data Holdings to offer its existing customers a comprehensive service portfolio, ranging from data center management, security and cloud solutions to data storage, container housing and business continuity services.
Stack41 had operated from within Data Holdings’ Milwaukee data center facility and served its colocation customers, according to a statement.
With the acquisition, Data Holdings will be better positioned to serve as a strategic partner to customers who require constant access to business applications.
“By partnering with Stack41, we now offer a suite of fully outsourced data center services, in addition to our premier colocation,” Kip Ritchie, president of Data Holdings, said in a statement. “Customers can also choose from a hybrid mix of services to fit their need at our facility, at their home location, or both.”
Stack41, which also has operations in Minneapolis, Minn., will add experience in Internet of Things sensors, network and software applications for users in manufacturing, water treatment and real estate development, among others.
“Our goal was to create a comprehensive product offering consisting of a superb, resilient brick and mortar data center, allied with the most capable hardware neutral, business IT applications team available,” Ritchie stated. “The Stack41 team of experts has made that possible.”
Stack41 executives will stay with the company under the new ownership and take positions including general manager, vice president of business development, network engineer and network operations center technician.
“The partnership of our two companies delivers exactly what companies want and need – services that are easy to consume, highly scalable and flexible with dynamic tools to order, manage and maintain,” Stack41 co-founder Ryan Brooks, who will now serve as general manager of Data Holdings, said in a statement. “As data services and security providers, we look forward to delivering those services to Data Holding’s customers.”
Data Holdings is a venture of Potawatomi Business Development Corporation, the non-gaming business investment arm of the Forest County Potawatomi Community.
Terms of the Stack41 deal were not disclosed.
Data Holdings’ acquisition of Stack41 comes amid a hot deal market within the data center industry. According to Reno, Nev.-based Synergy Research Group, 87 data center deals valued at $24 billion closed in the first half of 2022, with an additional $18 billion in deals expected to close by the end of the year, driven by an influx of private equity capital into the market.
That activity builds on the record $48 billion in deals that closed in 2021, according to Synergy Research Group.
“There is an ever-increasing demand for data center capacity, driven by rapidly growing cloud markets, aggressive expansion of hyperscale operator networks and continued growth of data-rich digital services,” John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy Research Group, said in a statement. “The trouble is that building and operating large fleets of data centers is highly capital intensive. Even the biggest data center operators have had to seek external funding to allow them to meet growth targets while protecting their balance sheets.”
