Equinix Advances Ethernet Exchange Plans, Reports Q4

Data center specialist Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) reported earnings yesterday after the bell, and this morning gave us an update on its Carrier Ethernet Exchange initiative.  Overall, the company had a great Q4 in which revenues of $243M and EBITDA of $111.3 exceeded both guidance and analyst expectations.  However, guidance for 2010 apparently disappointed some analysts, though Equinix has a history of cautious initial full year projections – they looked pretty good to me.  Here is a quick summary of the company’s sequential performance and projections:

	Q1/09	Q2/09	Q3/09	Q4/09	Q1/10 (guid)	FY2010 (guid)
Revenue	$205.3M	$213.2M	$227.6M	$242.6M	$245-247M	$1.050-$1.075B
adj. EBITDA	$91.4M	$99.5M	$106.0M	$111.7M	$110-112M	$460-480M
adj. EBITDA margin	46%	47%	47%	46%
EPS (diluted)	$0.40	$0.44	$0.47	$0.43
Capex	$75.0M	$76.8M	$88.9M	$101.7M	$110-130M	$400-500M

On the Ethernet exchange front, Equinix added four new participants: euNetworks, PacketExchange, BroadbandONE (a.k.a. WV Fiber), and Easynet Global Services. They will join the other network providers announced late last year for the final phase of development. The commercial roll-out is scheduled for the second quarter, starting in NYC, Chicago, Silicon Valley, and London, and then to twelve further locations which will no doubt be similarly familiar large Equinix markets. With CENX already out there, this space continues to look very interesting going forward. This is not a photo-op, these guys all appear to be quite serious.

Equinix also announced the completion of build-outs in Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, and they have begun a further expansion in Frankfurt at their FR-2 facility.  Between the pending acquisition of Switch and Data, the half billion in capex most of which is entirely for new projects, the steady deluge of revenue growth, and the new Ethernet exchange business line, Equinix has an impressively full agenda for 2010 even though we’re only 6 weeks into the year.

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Categories: Datacenter · Ethernet · Financials