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German company bids for KPNQwest datacentre

1&1 Internet says it will bid for a major KPNQwest data centre in Karlsruhe, which, incidentally, houses a competitor's servers
Written by Sebastian Brinkmann, Contributor

German Web hosting company 1&1 Internet plans to bid for a major data centre owned by bankrupt KPNQwest, the company said. The news comes as KPNQwest, which runs the biggest fibre-optic Internet backbone in Europe, struggles to keep its network running long enough to sell off its assets.

1&1 said it would put in a bid for KPNQwest's Karlsruhe data centre, which is said to host about two-thirds of Germany's corporate ".de" Internet addresses. If the bid is successful, however, it would mean that 1&1 would own a centre housing the servers of its competitor, Strato.

"The KPNQwest data centre would be a good fit for us, with our experience in the enterprise data centre," said 1&1 spokesman Michael Frenzel.

1&1 already operates a data centre in Karlsruhe, but has been building an additional location in the city over the past year, which is set to go into operation in November with five times the capacity of the old location. Frenzel said that if 1&1 does acquire the KPNQwest facility, the company will close down its original location.

Strato declined to comment on 1&1's offer, and would not say whether Strato is mounting a competing bid.


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