Verizon Communications hopes to raise more than $2.5 billion through the sale of 48 data centers, according to Reuters. The carrier got into the data center business in a big way in 2011 with the $1.4 billion purchase of Terremark, but now may be looking to get out.
A data center sale would continue Verizon’s recent trend of selling non-core assets. The company sold its tower portfolio to American Tower for $5 billion and is selling some of its wireline assets to Frontier Communications for $10.5 billion.
From a financial perspective, the data center business has been going in a different direction from Verizon’s wireless and telecom businesses. Data centers are increasingly operated as real estate investment trusts, making them more similar to the tower business than to the business of providing wireless services.
Verizon has been raising cash ever since it took full ownership of its wireless business by purchasing the 45% of that business that was previously owned by Vodafone. That $130 billion deal closed in 2014 and left Verizon with a significant debt load.
In 2015, Verizon spent $10.4 billion to purchase 181 licenses in the U.S. government’s most recent spectrum auction. The carrier is also expected to be a bidder in the upcoming 600 MHz incentive auction.
Verizon has apparently shelved plans to raise even more cash through a larger asset sale. Late last year, published reports said Verizon wanted to sell the enterprise assets it acquired from MCI, as well as the Terremark data centers.
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