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Index to Financial Statements

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

 


 

FORM 10-K

  x   ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004

 

OR

 

  ¨   TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the transition period from                  to                 

 

Commission file number 000-31293

 


 

EQUINIX, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

Delaware   77-0487526
(State of incorporation)   (IRS Employer Identification No.)

 

301 Velocity Way, Fifth Floor, Foster City, California 94404

(Address of principal executive offices, including ZIP code)

 

(650) 513-7000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 


 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

None

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

 

Common Stock, $0.001

 


 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    x  Yes    ¨  No

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ¨

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). x  Yes    ¨  No

 

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common stock was last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common stock, as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter was approximately $518.2 million.

 

As of February 28, 2005, a total of 23,445,362 shares of the registrant’s common stock were outstanding.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

Part III—Portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement to be issued in conjunction with the registrant’s 2005 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which is expected to be filed not later than 120 days after the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2004. Except as expressly incorporated by reference, the registrant’s Proxy Statement shall not be deemed to be a part of this report on Form 10-K.

 



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EQUINIX, INC.

 

FORM 10-K

 

DECEMBER 31, 2004

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Item


        Page No.

     PART I     

1.

   Business    3

2.

   Properties    12

3.

   Legal Proceedings    12

4.

   Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders    13
     PART II     

5.

   Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities    14

6.

   Selected Financial Data    16

7.

   Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations    17
     Risk Factors    43

7A.

   Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk    54

8.

   Financial Statements and Supplementary Data    55

9.

   Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure    56

9A.

   Controls and Procedures    56

9B.

   Other Information    56
     PART III     

10.

   Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant    57

11.

   Executive Compensation    57

12.

   Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters    57

13.

   Certain Relationships and Related Transactions    57

14.

   Principal Accountant Fees and Services    57
     PART IV     

15.

   Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules    58
     Signatures    63

 

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PART I

 

ITEM 1.    BUSINESS

 

The words “Equinix”, “we”, “our”, “ours”, “us” and the “Company” refer to Equinix, Inc. All statements in this discussion that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding Equinix’s “expectations”, “beliefs”, “hopes”, “intentions”, “strategies” or the like. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Equinix cautions investors that there can be no assurance that actual results or business conditions will not differ materially from those projected or suggested in such forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the risk factors discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Equinix expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in Equinix’s expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements are based.

 

Overview

 

Equinix provides network neutral colocation, interconnection and managed services to enterprises, content companies, systems integrators and the world’s largest networks. Through our 15 Internet Business Exchange centers, or IBX centers, in the U.S. and Asia customers can directly interconnect with each other for critical traffic exchange requirements. Direct interconnection to our aggregation of networks, which serve more than 90% of the world’s Internet routes, allows our customers to increase performance while significantly reducing costs. Based on our network neutral model and the quality of our IBX centers, we believe we have established a critical mass of customers. Our differentiated business model, the critical mass and the resulting “network effect,” combined with our strong financial position, has allowed us to continue to accelerate new customer growth and strong bookings from our existing customers; and, given we have a largely fixed cost model related to our existing IBX centers, we believe this customer and booking growth will continue to drive high margins and cash returns.

 

Our network neutral business model is a key differentiator for Equinix in the market. Because we do not operate a network, we are able to offer direct interconnection to the largest aggregation of bandwidth providers and Internet service providers. The world’s top tier Internet service providers, and numerous access networks, second tier providers and international carriers such AT&T, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, Level 3, MCI, NTT, SAVVIS, SBC, SingTel, Sprint and Qwest are all currently located at our IBX centers. Access to such a wide variety of networks has attracted all of the top 10 Internet properties and major E-commerce companies including Amazon.com, Disney, Electronic Arts, MSN, Ticketmaster and Yahoo!. In 2004, Equinix also experienced significant growth from enterprise companies and government agencies and now has a strong client base from these sectors including EDS, Fujitsu, Gannett, The Gap, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Sony, Wal-Mart, Washington Mutual, and Washington Post.

 

We offer three types of products and services: Colocation, Interconnection, and Managed IT Infrastructure services.

 

    Colocation services consist primarily of cabinets and power for our customers’ colocation needs.

 

    Interconnection services allow customers to trade network traffic with each other directly and simply.

 

    Managed IT infrastructure services allow our customers to leverage our significant telecommunication expertise, maximize the benefits of our IBX centers and optimize their infrastructure and resources.

 

This market has historically been served by large telecommunications carriers who have bundled their telecommunications services with their colocation offerings. In mid-2003 two major telecommunications companies announced their plans to exit the U.S. market in order to focus on their core offerings. The majority of the assets from these companies have been sold to managed service providers and we believe we will continue to benefit from gaining customers who are displaced or choose to leave these providers because we offer access to a

 

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world-class choice of carriers and service providers. In addition, because many of the exiting competitors networks are already present in Equinix, we have become a natural channel partner for these networks as they continue to experience demand from their customers for quality colocation.

 

In order to serve this increased demand for our services, we have acquired two additional data centers during 2004 in our key markets in the Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. areas. Strategically, Equinix will continue to look at financially attractive opportunities to grow our market share and selectively improve our footprint and service streams.

 

Recent Developments

 

In April 2004, we entered into a long-term lease for a 95,000 square foot data center in the Washington, D.C. metro area. This data center is adjacent to the Company’s existing Washington D.C. metro area IBX. This lease includes the leasing of all of the IBX plant and machinery equipment located in the building. Both the building and equipment components of this lease are being accounted for as a capital lease. We took possession of this property during the fourth quarter of 2004, and as a result, recorded property and equipment assets, as well as a capital lease obligation, totaling $35.3 million. Payments under this lease, which commenced in November 2004, will be made through 2019 at an effective interest rate of 8.50% per annum. We intend to place customers in this center in 2005.

 

In December 2004, we entered into a long-term lease for a 103,000 square foot data center in the Silicon Valley area. This data center is close to our existing IBX centers in the Silicon Valley, and expands the global Equinix footprint to approximately 1.4 million square feet. This new lease will add an additional $34.2 million in cumulative monthly lease payments through 2020, commencing February 2005. We will take possession of this property during the first quarter of 2005. We currently intend to place customers in this data center in 2005. Concurrent with the signing of this lease, we also purchased the assets located in this data center and entered into an agreement to interconnect all three of our Silicon Valley IBX centers to each other through redundant dark fiber links. This will allow our customers to have access to all the networks and customers in each of the three Silicon Valley IBXs. We are currently evaluating the accounting treatment for this lease, and related agreements, and will have this evaluation completed in March 2005.

 

In December 2004, in light of the availability of fully built-out data centers in select markets at costs significantly below those costs we would incur in building out new space, we made the decision to exit leases for excess space adjacent to one of our New York metro area IBXs, as well as space on the floor above our original Los Angeles IBX. As a result of our decision to exit these spaces, we recorded a restructuring charge totaling $17.7 million, which represents the present value of our estimated future cash payments, net of any estimated subrental income and expense, through the remainder of these lease terms, as well as the write-off of all remaining property and equipment attributed to the excess space on the floor above our Los Angeles IBX. We entered into a two-year sublease agreement for the excess space in the New York metro area and are currently evaluating opportunities related to our excess space in Los Angeles.

 

In December 2004, we entered into a $25.0 million line of credit arrangement with Silicon Valley Bank that matures in December 2006. This facility is a $25.0 million revolving line of credit which, at our election, up to $10.0 million may be converted into a 24-month term loan, repayable in eight quarterly installments. We refer to this transaction as the “Silicon Valley Bank credit line.” Borrowings under the Silicon Valley Bank credit line bear interest at floating interest rates, plus applicable margins, based either on the prime rate or LIBOR. As of December 31, 2004, the Silicon Valley Bank credit line had an interest rate of 4.40% per annum; however, through the date of filing of this report on Form 10-K, we have not drawn down any amounts from this line of credit. The Silicon Valley Bank credit line also features sublimits, which allows us to issue letters of credit, enter into foreign exchange forward contracts and make advances for cash management services. Our utilization under any of these sublimits would have the effect of reducing the amount available for borrowing under the Silicon Valley Bank credit line during the period that such sublimits remain utilized and outstanding. As of December 31, 2004, we had utilized $3.2 million under the letters of credit sublimit with the issuance of three

 

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letters of credit and, as a result, reduced the amount of borrowings available to us from $25.0 million to $21.8 million. The Silicon Valley Bank credit line is secured by substantially all of our domestic assets and contains numerous covenants, including financial covenants, such as maintaining minimum cash balance levels and meeting minimum quarterly revenue targets, which we are in full compliance of. The Silicon Valley Bank credit line provides us with additional liquidity and financing flexibility.

 

In January 2005, we converted 95% of the outstanding convertible secured notes and accrued and unpaid interest, held by STT Communications Ltd., into 4.1 million shares of our preferred stock, which was subsequently converted into 4.1 million shares of our common stock in February 2005. The remaining 5% of the convertible secured notes, totaling $1.9 million, that remain outstanding will be eligible for conversion by Equinix in early 2006 into approximately 250,000 shares (including anticipated interest expense to be incurred during 2005 and early 2006), provided that the closing price of our common stock exceeds $32.12 per share for thirty consecutive trading days.

 

Industry Background

 

The Internet is a collection of numerous independent networks interconnected with each other to form a network of networks. Users on different networks are able to communicate with each other through interconnection between these networks. For example, when a user of the Internet sends an email to another user, assuming that each person uses a different network provider, the email must pass from one network to the other in order to get to the final destination.

 

In order to accommodate the rapid growth of Internet traffic, an organized approach for network interconnection was needed. The exchange of traffic between these networks became known as peering. Peering is when networks trade traffic at relatively equal amounts and set up agreements to trade traffic for free. At first, government and non-profit organizations established places where these networks could exchange traffic, or peer, with each other—these points were known as network access points, or NAPs. Over time, many NAPs became a natural extension of carrier services and were run by such companies as MFS (now a part of MCI), Sprint, Ameritech and Pacific Bell (both now known as SBC).

 

Ultimately, these NAPs were unable to scale with the growth of the Internet and the lack of “neutrality” by the carrier owners of these NAPs created a conflict of interest with the participants. This created a market need for network neutral interconnection points that could accommodate the rapidly growing need to increase performance for enterprise and consumer users of the Internet, especially with the rise of important content providers such as Microsoft, Yahoo!, America Online and others. In addition, the providers, as well as a growing number of enterprises required a more secure, reliable solution for direct connection to a variety of telecommunications networks as the importance of their Internet operations continued to grow.

 

To accommodate Internet traffic growth, the largest of these networks left the NAPs and began trading traffic by placing private circuits between each other. Peering which once occurred at the NAP locations were moved to these private circuits. Over the years, these circuits became expensive to expand and could not be built fast enough to accommodate the growth in traffic. This led to a need by the large carriers to find a more efficient way to trade traffic or peer. Customers have chosen Equinix for their peering operations because they are now able to reach all of the networks they peer with in one location, with simple direct connections. Their ability to peer across the room, instead of across a metro area has increased the scalability of their operations while decreasing cost by upwards of 70%.

 

Our IBX centers are the next-generation interconnection points. They are designed to handle the scalability issues that exist between both large and small networks, as well as the interconnection between the emerging companies who have become critical to the Internet. We have been successful in uniting the major companies that make up the Internet infrastructure including AT&T, Level 3, MCI, Qwest, SAVVIS and Sprint. These companies, which constitute the world’s top Internet service providers, together with most of the major

 

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broadband networks, including America Online, Comcast Corporation, Cox Communications, MSN and SBC, second tier backbones such as Global Crossing, Verio and WilTel, top international telecommunications carriers, including Bell Canada, British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, France Telecom, Japan Telecom, KDDI, SingTel, StarHub, Telia and Telstra, and almost every fiber, sonet, Ethernet and competitive local exchange companies, including Looking Glass Networks and OnFiber Communications, and incumbent local exchange company, including BellSouth, SBC and Verizon, are our customers and use us to interconnect with each other and their customers. Additionally, we provide an important industry leadership role in the area of exchange points and are consistently looked to as an industry expert and key influencer in this subject matter.

 

Content providers and enterprises can now control their own network performance and destiny by choosing the various service providers they wish to work with and by establishing direct connections for this connectivity. For our customers, this represents significant cost savings and increased flexibility to move among providers.

 

Our Solution

 

Our IBX centers provide the environment and services to meet the networking and IT operations challenges facing enterprises, networks and Internet businesses today. As a result, we are able to provide the following key benefits to our customers:

 

Quality.    Our IBX centers provide customers with a secure, high quality solution for their colocation needs. Enterprise and content companies have demanding requirements for data center uptime, security, power backup and other important attributes. We have designed our centers and processes to exceed the requirements for the most important financial institutions, government agencies and key enterprise brands such as Amazon.com, The Gap, Goldman Sachs, Macromedia, Sony and Ticketmaster. We have a track record of 99.999% uptime and are continually testing and refining processes to ensure that we will continue to provide the stability and quality that customers expect.

 

Performance.    Because we provide direct access to the providers that serve more than 90% of the world’s Internet routes and users, customers can quickly, efficiently, cost-effectively and reliably exchange traffic with their network services providers for higher performance operations. Access to the more than 200 networks ensures high-quality direct interconnection. With the mass of networks present, global enterprises are increasingly looking at ways to provide network diversity and increase performance of their operations, and are utilizing our IBX centers to ensure their IT infrastructures are operating at the interconnection hub of the Internet. By using multiple networks, customers are able to insure their operations in the event that one of their network service providers has a service interruption or restructuring in the business. The network service providers and geographic diversity we offer provides customers with the flexibility to enable the highest performing Internet operations.

 

Improved Economics.    Our services such as Equinix GigE Exchange and Equinix Internet Core Exchange facilitate peering and dramatically reduce costs for critical transit, peering and traffic exchange operations by eliminating the costs of private peering or local loops. Networks such as Cox, British Telecom, China Telecom and SBC and content providers such as Electronic Arts, Google, MSN and Yahoo! can save between 20% to 70% of bandwidth costs through the traffic exchange services we offer. In addition, content companies and enterprises can save significant bandwidth costs because the number of networks housed within Equinix competing for the traffic of these companies results in lower prices while increasing performance.

 

Access to International Markets.    We offer our network, content and enterprise customers a one-stop solution for their outsourced IT infrastructure needs in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific. This is especially important for U.S. enterprises who want to expand into Asia-Pacific, where the myriad of complexities for doing business in each country remains challenging. We offer a consistent standard of quality, a single contract and a single point of support for all our locations throughout the U.S. and Asia-Pacific.

 

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Our Strategy

 

Our objective is to become the premier hub for critical Internet players, enterprises and government agencies to locate their Internet operations in order to gain maximum benefits from the choice of networks and partners in the most simple and efficient manner. Key components of our strategy include the following:

 

Continue to Build upon our Critical Mass of Network Providers and Content Companies, and Grow our Position within Enterprise and Government.    We have assembled a critical mass of premier network providers and content companies and have become one of the core hubs of the Internet. This critical mass is a key selling point since content companies want to connect with a diverse set of networks to provide the best connectivity to their end-customers, and network companies want to sell bandwidth to content customers and interconnect with other networks in the most efficient manner available. Currently, we have over 200 unique networks, including all of the top tier networks, allowing our customers to directly interconnect with providers that serve more than 90% of global Internet routes. We have a growing mass of key players in the enterprise sector, such as The Gap, GE, Gannett, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Sony Corporation, Washington Mutual and others. Similarly, we have experienced increasing success in the government sector within defense and security. We expect these sectors be a key growth driver in 2005 and beyond.

 

Leverage the Network Effect.    As networks, content providers and other enterprises locate in our IBX centers, it benefits their suppliers and business partners to do so as well to gain the full economic and performance benefits of direct interconnection. These partners, in turn, pull in their business partners, creating a “network effect” of customer adoption. Our interconnection services enable scalable, reliable and cost-effective interconnection and traffic exchange thus lowering overall cost and increasing flexibility. The ability to directly interconnect with a wide variety of companies is a key differentiator for Equinix in the market.

 

Promote our IBX Centers as the Highest Performance Points on the Internet.    Our premier IBX centers offer state of the art design and security, 24 hour / 365 days a year customer service, and high quality power and back-up redundancy with 99.999% uptime. Underscoring our customer satisfaction over the past year, our embedded customer base has consistently provided approximately 75% of our growth in a given quarter.

 

Provide New Products and Services within our IBX Centers.    We will continue to offer additional products and services that are most valuable to our customers as they manage their Internet and network businesses and, specifically, as they attempt to effectively utilize multiple networks. For example, we offer an automated service to allow customers to easily choose and provision multiple networks with a simple easy to use portal.

 

Customers

 

Our customers include carriers and other bandwidth providers, internet service providers, enterprises, content providers and system integrators. We offer each customer a choice of business partners and solutions based on their colocation, interconnection and managed IT service needs. As of December 31, 2004, we had 950 customers worldwide.

 

Typical customers in each category include the following:

 

Carriers/Networks


 

Content Providers


 

Enterprise


AT&T

  Amazon.com   Apple

Cable & Wireless

  AOL   Deutsche Boerse

Comcast

  Electronic Arts   Electronic Data Systems

Level 3

  Google   Fidelity Investments

MCI

  MSN   Fujitsu

NTT

  Sony   Gannett

SAVVIS

  Ticketmaster   The Gap

SBC

  Wal-Mart   Goldman Sachs

Sprint

  Washington Post   IBM

Verizon

  Yahoo!   Washington Mutual

 

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Customers typically sign renewable contracts of one or more years in length. Our single largest customer, IBM, represented approximately 13%, 15% and 20% of total revenues for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively. No other single customer accounted for more than 10% of revenues during this time.

 

Products and Services

 

Our products and services are comprised of three types: Colocation, Interconnection and Managed IT Infrastructure services.

 

Colocation Services

 

Our IBX centers provide our customers with secure, reliable and fault-tolerant environments that are necessary for optimum Internet commerce interconnection. Our IBX centers include multiple layers of physical security, scalable cabinet space availability, on-site trained staff 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, dedicated areas for customer care and equipment staging, redundant AC/DC power systems and multiple other redundant, fault-tolerant infrastructure systems. Some specifications or services provided may differ in our Asia-Pacific locations in order to properly meet the local needs of customers in those locations.

 

Within our IBX centers, customers can place their equipment and interconnect with a choice of networks or other business partners. We also provide customized solutions for customers looking to package our IBX space as part of their complex solutions. Our colocation products and services include:

 

Cabinets.    Our customers have several choices for colocating their networking and server equipment. They can place the equipment in one of our shared or private cages or customize their space. As a customer’s colocation requirements increase, they can expand within their original cage or upgrade into a cage that meets their expanded requirements. Cabinets are priced with an initial installation fee and an ongoing recurring monthly charge.

 

Power.    We offer both AC and DC power circuits at various amperages and phases customized to a customer’s individual power requirements. Power is becoming an element of increasing importance in customers’ colocation decisions.

 

IBXflex.    This service allows customers to deploy mission-critical operations personnel and equipment on-site at our IBX centers. Because of the close proximity to their end-users, IBXflex customers can offer a faster response and quicker troubleshooting solution than those available in traditional colocation facilities. This space can also be used as a secure disaster recovery point for customers’ business and operations personnel. This service is priced with an initial installation fee and an ongoing recurring monthly charge.

 

Interconnection Services

 

Our interconnection services enable scalable, reliable and cost-effective interconnection and traffic exchange between all Equinix customers. These interconnection services are either on a one-to-one basis with direct cross connects or one-to-many through one of our peering services. In peering, we provide an important industry leadership role by acting as the relationship broker between parties who would like to interconnect within our IBX centers. Our staff holds significant positions in the leading industry groups such as the North American Network Operators’ Group, or NANOG, and the Internet Engineering Task Force, or IETF, and bring a tremendous amount of knowledge to this area. Our staff published industry-recognized white papers and strategy documents in the areas of peering and interconnection, many of which are used by leading institutions worldwide in furthering the education and promotion of this important network arena. To showcase these efforts, we hold peering forums which are now widely recognized as a very influential forum for the world’s top peering experts. We will continue to develop additional services in the area of traffic exchange that will allow our customers to

 

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leverage the critical mass of networks now available in our IBX centers. The current exchange services are comprised of the following:

 

Physical Cross-Connect/Direct Interconnections.    Customers needing to directly and privately connect to another IBX customer can do so through single or multi-mode fiber. These cross connections are the physical link between customers and can be implemented within 24 hours of request. Cross-connect services are priced with an initial installation fee and an ongoing monthly recurring charge.

 

Equinix Internet Core Exchange.    This interconnection service enables direct peering interconnections between major backbone networks and providers. Equinix Internet Core Exchange is a pre-provisioned interconnection package that enables major backbones to connect their networks directly in a centralized, neutral environment for peering and transit. The service includes pre-provisioned interconnections, premium service levels and specialized customer service features to support the quality and support levels required by the largest Internet providers in the world. Internet Core Exchange services are priced with an initial installation fee and an ongoing monthly recurring charge.

 

Equinix GigE Exchange.    Customers may choose to connect to our GigE Exchange via a central switching fabric rather than purchase a direct physical cross connection. With a connection to this switch, a customer can aggregate multiple interconnects over one physical connection instead of purchasing individual physical cross connects. The GigE Exchange service is offered as a bundled service that includes a cabinet, power, cross connects and port charges. The service is priced by IBX with an initial installation fee and an ongoing monthly recurring charge. Individual IBX prices scale upward based on the number of participants on the exchange service.

 

Internet Connectivity Services.    Customers who are installing equipment in our IBX centers generally require IP connectivity or bandwidth services. Although many large customers prefer to contract directly with carriers, we will offer customers the ability to contract for these services through us from any of the major bandwidth providers. This service, which is primarily provided in Asia, is targeted to customers who require a single bill and a single point of support for all of their services contract through Equinix for their bandwidth needs. Internet Connectivity Services are priced with an initial installation fee and an ongoing monthly recurring charge based on the amount of bandwidth committed.

 

Managed IT Infrastructure Services

 

With the continued growth in Internet use, networks, service providers, enterprises and content providers are challenged to deliver fast and reliable service, while lowering costs. With over 200 ISPs and carriers located in our IBX centers, we leverage the value of network choice with our set of multi-network management and other outsourced IT services.

 

Professional Services.    Our IBX centers are staffed with Internet and telecommunications specialists who are on-site and available 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. These professionals are trained to perform installations of customer equipment and cabling. Professional services are custom-priced depending on customer requirements.

 

“Smart Hands” Services.    Our customers can take advantage of our professional “Smart Hands” service, which gives customers access to our IBX staff for a variety of tasks, when their own staff is not on site. These tasks may include equipment rebooting, power cycling, card swapping, and performing emergency equipment replacement. Services are available on-demand or by customer contract and are priced on an hourly basis.

 

Equinix Direct.    Equinix Direct is a managed multi-homing service that allows customers to easily provision and manage multiple network connections over a single interface. Customers can choose branded networks on a monthly basis with no minimums or long-term commitments. This service is priced with an initial install fee and ongoing monthly recurring charges.

 

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Equinix Mail Service.    Equinix’s enterprise messaging service is a complete outsourced solution, primarily based mainly on the Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange platform, which customers entrust the operation and support of their messaging applications. This service is currently only available in our Singapore location and the service is priced with an initial installation fee and an ongoing monthly recurring charge.

 

Managed Platform Solutions.    Managed Platform Solutions delivers pre-qualified, pre-installed, pre-hardened and fully managed systems platforms upon which customers can host their co-located applications. These platforms are available in different configuration to meet the needs of the customer. Each configuration includes the server(s), operating system, network connectivity, and system administration management as well as options for database and network administration. This service is only available in the Equinix Singapore location and the service is priced with an initial installation fee and an ongoing monthly recurring charge.

 

Sales and Marketing

 

Sales.    We use a direct sales force and channel marketing program to market our services to network, content provider, enterprise, government and Internet infrastructure businesses. We organize our sales force by customer type as well as by establishing a sales presence in diverse geographic regions, which enables efficient servicing of the customer base from a network of regional offices. In addition to our worldwide headquarters located in Silicon Valley, we have established an Asian-Pacific regional headquarters in Singapore. Our U.S. sales offices are located in New York; Boston; Reston, Virginia; Los Angeles; Honolulu; Chicago and Silicon Valley. Our Asia-Pacific sales offices are located in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney.

 

Our sales team works closely with each customer to foster the natural network effect of our IBX model, resulting in access to a wider potential customer base via our existing customers. As a result of the IBX interconnection model, IBX center participants encourage their customers, suppliers and business partners to come into the IBX centers. These customers, suppliers and business partners, in turn, encourage their business partners to locate in IBX centers resulting in additional customer growth. This network effect significantly reduces our new customer acquisition costs. In addition, large network providers or managed service providers may refer customers to Equinix as a part of their total customer solution.

 

In 2004, Equinix established a channel sales program to take advantage of the many networks that were exiting the colocation business to focus on their core competencies. These channel partners are primarily large telecommunications providers whose networks are already installed in Equinix IBX centers and who have customers that require high quality colocation, in addition to their network services.

 

Marketing.    To support our sales effort and to actively promote our brand in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific, we conduct comprehensive marketing programs. Our marketing strategies include an active public relations campaign and on-going customer communications programs. Our marketing efforts are focused on major business and trade publications, online media outlets, industry events and sponsored activities. Our staff holds leadership positions in key networking organizations and we participate in a variety of Internet, computer and financial industry conferences and place our officers and employees in keynote speaking engagements at these conferences. In addition to these activities, we build recognition through sponsoring or leading industry technical forums and participating in Internet industry standard-setting bodies. We continue to develop and host the industry’s most successful educational forums focused on peering technologies and peering practices for ISPs and content providers.

 

Competition

 

Our current and potential competition includes:

 

   

Internet data centers operated by established U.S. and Asia-Pacific communications carriers such as AT&T, Level 3, NTT, SAVVIS and SingTel.    Unlike the major network providers, who constructed data

 

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centers primarily to help sell bandwidth, we have aggregated multiple networks in one location, providing superior diversity, pricing and performance. Telecommunications companies’ data centers generally only provide one choice of carrier and generally require capacity minimums as part of their pricing structures. Locating in our IBX centers provides access to top tier networks and allows customers to negotiate the best prices with a number of carriers resulting in better economics and redundancy. In 2003 and 2004, two major carriers who had built and operated their own data centers exited the U.S. colocation market. The disposition of these assets has been completed with various owners assuming the assets, including SAVVIS. Because these operators are not network neutral, we believe we have an advantage in gaining the business of those customers displaced from these carriers because access to their networks are also available in our IBX centers.

 

    U.S. Network access points such as Switch and Data/Palo Alto Internet Exchange and carrier operated NAPs.    NAPs, generally operated by carriers, are typically older facilities and lack the incentive to upgrade the infrastructure in order to scale with traffic growth. In contrast, we provide state-of-the-art, secure facilities and geographic diversity with round the clock support and a full range of network and content provider offerings.

 

    Vertically integrated web site hosting, colocation and ISP companies such as AboveNet, Digex/MCI and SAVVIS.    Most managed service providers require that customers purchase their entire network and managed services directly from them. We are a network and service provider aggregator and allow customers the ability to contract directly with the networks and web-hosting partner best for their business. By locating in one of our IBX centers, hosting companies add more value to our business proposition by bringing in more partners and customers and thus enhancing a network effect.

 

Unlike other providers whose core businesses are bandwidth or managed services, we focus on neutral hubs for networks, content providers, enterprises and government. As a result, we are free of the channel conflict common at other hosting/colocation companies. We compete based on the quality of our facilities, our ability to provide a one-stop solution in our U.S. and Asia-Pacific locations, the superior performance and diversity of our network neutral strategy and the economic benefits of the aggregation of top networks and Internet businesses under one roof. Specifically, we have established relationships with a number of leading hosting companies such as IBM (our largest customer) and EDS. We expect to continue to benefit from several industry trends including the consolidation of supply in the colocation market, the need for contracting with multiple networks due to the uncertainty in the telecommunications market, enterprise customers’ growth in outsourcing and the continued growth of the large and stable systems integrators.

 

Employees

 

As of December 31, 2004, we had 468 employees. We had 315 employees based in the U.S. and 153 employees based in Asia-Pacific. Of our U.S. employees, we had 192 based at our corporate headquarters in Foster City, California and our regional sales offices. Of those employees, 77 were in engineering and operations, 66 were in sales and marketing and 49 were in management and finance. We had 123 employees based at our IBX centers in Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Honolulu, Hawaii; Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, California; New York, New York; and the Washington, D.C. area. Of our Asia-Pacific employees, we had 98 at our Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore and our other regional offices. Of those employees, 31 were in engineering and operations, 26 were in sales and marketing and 41 were in management and finance. We had 55 employees based at our IBX centers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.

 

Available Information

 

We were incorporated in Delaware in June 1998. We are required to file reports under the Exchange Act with the SEC. You may read and copy our materials on file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 450 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain information regarding the SEC’s Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC also maintains an Internet website at http://www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information.

 

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You may also obtain copies of our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our current reports on Form 8-K by visiting the investor relations page on our website, www.equinix.com. Information contained on our website is not part of this annual report on Form 10-K.

 

ITEM 2.    PROPERTIES

 

Our executive offices are located in Foster City, California, and we also have sales offices in several cities throughout the United States. Our Asia-Pacific headquarter office is located in Singapore and we also have some office space in Hong Kong and Tokyo, Japan. We have entered into leases for IBX centers in Ashburn, Virginia; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Honolulu, Hawaii; Los Angeles, San Jose and Santa Clara, California; Newark and Secaucus, New Jersey; Hong Kong; Singapore; Sydney, Australia and Tokyo, Japan. We also hold a ground leasehold interest in certain unimproved real property in San Jose, California, consisting of approximately 40 acres.

 

ITEM 3.    LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

 

On July 30, 2001 and August 8, 2001, putative shareholder class action lawsuits were filed against us, certain of our officers and directors (the “Individual Defendants”), and several investment banks that were underwriters of our initial public offering. The cases were filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, purportedly on behalf of investors who purchased our stock between August 10, 2000 and December 6, 2000. In addition, similar lawsuits were filed against approximately 300 other issuers and related parties. The purported class action alleges violations of Sections 11 and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “1933 Act”) and Sections 10(b), Rule 10b-5 and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “1934 Act”) against the Company and Individual Defendants. The plaintiffs have since dismissed the Individual Defendants without prejudice. The suits allege that the underwriter defendants agreed to allocate stock in our initial public offering to certain investors in exchange for excessive and undisclosed commissions and agreements by those investors to make additional purchases in the aftermarket at pre-determined prices. The plaintiffs allege that the prospectus for our initial public offering was false and misleading and in violation of the securities laws because it did not disclose these arrangements. The action seeks damages in an unspecified amount. On February 19, 2003, the Court dismissed the Section 10(b) claim against the Company, but denied the motion to dismiss the Section 11 claim.

 

In July 2003, a Special Litigation Committee of the Equinix Board of Directors approved a settlement agreement and related agreements which set forth the terms of a settlement between the Company, the Individual Defendants, the plaintiff class and the vast majority of the other approximately 300 issuer defendants and the individual defendants currently or formerly associated with those companies. Among other provisions, the settlement provides for a release of the Company and the individual defendants and the Company’s agreeing to assign away, not assert, or release certain potential claims the Company may have against its underwriters. The settlement agreement also provides a guaranteed recovery of $1 billion to plaintiffs for the cases relating to all of the approximately 300 issuers. To the extent that the underwriter defendants settle all of the cases for at least $1 billion, no payment will be required under the issuers’ settlement agreement. To the extent that the underwriter defendants settle for less than $1 billion, the issuers are required to make up the difference. It is anticipated that any potential financial obligation of Equinix to plaintiffs pursuant to the settlement, currently such claims are expected to be less than $3.4 million, will be covered by existing insurance and we do not expect that the settlement will involve any payment by the Company. The Company has no information as to whether there are any material limitations on the expected recovery by other issuer defendants of any potential financial obligation to plaintiffs from their own insurance carriers. The settlement agreement has been submitted to the Court for approval. The underwriter defendants have filed objections to the settlement agreement. As approval by the Court cannot be assured, the Company is unable at this time to determine whether the outcome of the litigation would have a material impact on its results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.

 

On October 13, 2004, the Court certified a Section 11 class in four of the six cases that were the subject of class certification motions and determined that the class period for Section 11 claims is the period between the

 

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IPO and the date that unregistered shares entered the market. The Court noted that its decision on those cases is intended to provide strong guidance to all parties regarding class certification in the remaining cases. Plaintiffs have not yet moved to certify a class in the Equinix case. Until the settlement is finalized and approved by the Court, or in the event such settlement is not approved, we and our officers and directors intend to continue to defend the actions vigorously.

 

ITEM 4.    SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS

 

None during the fourth quarter of 2004.

 

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PART II

 

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

 

Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol EQIX. Our common stock began trading in August 2000. The following table sets forth on a per share basis the low and high closing prices of our common stock as reported by the Nasdaq National Market during the last two years.

 

     Low

   High

Fiscal 2004:

             

Fourth Fiscal Quarter

   $ 31.44    $ 43.10

Third Fiscal Quarter

     26.59      33.52

Second Fiscal Quarter

     27.86      35.84

First Fiscal Quarter

     26.49      36.87

Fiscal 2003:

             

Fourth Fiscal Quarter

   $ 17.04    $ 28.25

Third Fiscal Quarter

     8.03      23.37

Second Fiscal Quarter

     2.90      10.40

First Fiscal Quarter

     2.95      7.70

 

As of December 31, 2004, we had issued 18,999,468 shares of our common stock held by approximately 458 registered holders.

 

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and we do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain our earnings, if any, for future growth. Future dividends on our common stock, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on, among other things, our operations, capital requirements and surplus, general financial condition, contractual restrictions and such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant.

 

The effective date of the Registration Statement for our initial public offering, filed on Form S-1 under the Securities Act of 1933 (File No. 333-93749), was August 10, 2000. The class of securities registered was common stock. There has been no change to the disclosure contained in the Company’s report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2000 regarding the use of proceeds generated by the Company’s initial public offering of its common stock.

 

During the quarter ended December 31, 2004, we did not issue or sell any new securities.

 

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Equity Compensation Plan Information

 

The following table provides information as of December 31, 2004 with respect to the shares of the Company’s common stock that may be issuable under the Company’s existing equity compensation plans.

 

The following information is as of December 31, 2004:

 

     (a)

   (b)

   (c)

 

Plan category


   Number of securities
to be issued upon
exercise of
outstanding options
and rights


   Weighted-average
exercise price of
outstanding
options and rights


   Number of securities
remaining available
for future issuance
under equity
compensation plans
(excluding securities
reflected in column (a))


 

Equity compensation plans approved by security holders*

   3,766,662    $ 25.55    876,719 **

Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders

   35,132    $ 12.16    1,390,982  
    
         

Totals

   3,801,794    $ 25.42    2,267,701  
    
         


*   On each January 1, beginning in 2001, the number of shares reserved for issuance under the following equity compensation plans will be automatically increased as follows: the 2000 Equity Incentive Plan will be automatically increased by the lesser of 6% of the then outstanding shares of common stock or 6 million shares; the 2000 Director Option Plan will be automatically increased by 50,000 shares of common stock; the Employee Stock Purchase Plan will be automatically increased by the lesser of 2% of the then outstanding shares of common stock or 600,000 shares; and, beginning in 2005, the 2004 Employee Stock Purchase Plan will be automatically increased by the lesser of 2% of the then outstanding shares of common stock or 500,000 shares . The Employee Stock Purchase Plan was succeeded by the 2004 Employee Stock Purchase Plan and after January 1, 2005, no additional shares will be added to the Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
**   Includes 353 shares from the Employee Stock Purchase Plan and 500,000 shares from the 2004 Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

 

The following equity compensation plan of the Company that was in effect as of December 31, 2004 was adopted without the approval of the Company’s security holders:

 

The Equinix 2001 Supplemental Stock Plan was adopted by the board of directors effective September 26, 2001. The Company has reserved 1,493,961 shares of common stock for issuance under the 2001 Supplemental Stock Plan. Nonstatutory options and restricted stock awards may be granted under the 2001 Supplemental Stock Plan to employees of the Company (or any parent or subsidiary corporation) who are neither officers nor Board members at the time of grant or to consultants. All option grants will have an exercise price per share equal to not less than 85% of the fair market value per share of common stock on the grant date. Each option will vest in installments over the optionee’s period of service with the Company. The purchase price for newly issued restricted shares awarded under the 2001 Supplemental Stock Plan may be paid in cash, by promissory note or by the rendering of past or future services. As of December 31, 2004, options covering 35,132 shares of common stock were outstanding under the 2001 Supplemental Stock Plan, 1,390,982 shares remained available for future option grants, and options covering 67,847 shares had been exercised. The options will vest on an accelerated basis in the event the Company is acquired and those options are not assumed or replaced by the acquiring entity. An option or award will become fully exercisable or fully vested if the holder’s employment or service is involuntarily terminated within 18 months following the acquisition. The Board may amend or terminate the 2001 Supplemental Stock Plan at any time. The 2001 Supplemental Stock Plan will continue in effect indefinitely unless the board decides to terminate the plan earlier.

 

 

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ITEM 6.    SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

 

The following statement of operations data for the five years ended December 31, 2004 and the balance sheet data as of December 31, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes to the financial statements. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for future periods. The following selected consolidated financial data for the three years ended December 31, 2004 and as of December 31, 2004 and 2003, should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes to the consolidated financial statements and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

     Years ended December 31,

 
     2004

    2003

    2002

    2001

    2000

 
     (dollars in thousands, except per share data)  

Statement of Operations Data:

                                        

Revenues

   $ 163,671     $ 117,942     $ 77,188     $ 63,414     $ 13,016  
    


 


 


 


 


Costs and operating expenses: