Posted on: Wednesday, March 28, 2001

Data center company signs on $34M

Advertiser Staff

Honolulu-based data center company Pihana Pacific said today that its investors include GE Capital Telecom and UBS Capital, which have invested $34 million as part of a financing plan the company announced late last year.

The investments, which followed a $190 million financing round to help build out Pihana's data center network across Asia, bring the company's total funding to $236 million.

Other investors include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Hewlett-Packard and PacifiCap Group.

Pihana, which started in January 2000 and was formerly Pacific Internet Exchange Corp., now has operating data centers in Los Angeles, Honolulu, Singapore and Tokyo.

Another center will open soon in Seoul, and Pihana wants to expand its network of centers throughout the most affluent Asian nations.

Pihana has said it will use the money to build six data exchange centers in Asia and Australia, and to increase its work force from about 120 employees to 275.

Pihana will market the data centers as high-speed nodes for the exchange of electronic information. Target customers are data providers from local Internet service providers to global cable networks.

The typical exchange center will be 40,000 to 60,000 square feet and should take nine to 18 months to become profitable.