Vertiv now trading on the NYSE as it aims to power more edge infrastructure

The company’s new investors believe Vertiv’s growth trajectory has plenty of upside — upside that’s in part being driven by the expanding business for edge and micro data centers. In short, data centers need a continuous supply of power; edge data center facilities will require new investment in battery and other forms of backup power as well as the cabinets and management tools that go along with operating distributed systems. Vertiv is aggressively developing and marketing products to target various edge use cases such as cell tower deployments.

“Today marks an important milestone in Vertiv’s history, as we enter the public markets well-positioned to create shareholder value and capture the growth opportunities we see on the horizon,” Vertiv CEO Rob Johnson said in a prepared statement.

The listing came about when Vertiv’s private-equity parent, Platinum Equity, agreed to merge the firm with GS Acquisition Holdings Corp, an acquisition vehicle sponsored by an affiliate of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Platinum had originally acquired Vertiv as a carve-out of Emerson Electric’s Network Power division in 2016. The PE firm had an eye toward taking the division public, but instead saw the realignment of the product portfolio with some asset sales and acquisitions.

GS Acquisition was created in 2018 in an initial public offering that raised $690 million, money it would eventually use to absorb Vertiv.

Platinum owns 38% of the company while David Cote, CEO and president of GS Acquisition and “affiliates of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.” will hold 5%.

Article Topics

acquisition  |  datacenter  |  Goldman Sachs  |  hardware  |  private equity  |  Vertiv