CyrusOne’s Gary Wojtaszek Departs As Data Center Company Hits $1B

‘From helping take the company public, to expanding overseas and emerging as one of the top data center companies in the world, I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished and the culture we have created,’ says CyrusOne president and CEO Gary Wojtaszek.

CyrusOne president and CEO Gary Wojtaszek, who helped take the data center specialist public in 2013 and grow it into nearly a $1 billion company, is resigning after nearly nine years of running the company.

“From helping take the company public, to expanding overseas and emerging as one of the top data center companies in the world, I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished and the culture we have created,” said Wojtaszek in a statement. “I believe in the mission of CyrusOne, I have confidence in Tesh [Durvasula] and the team, and look forward to seeing the company continue to succeed and expand.”

CyrusOne’s president of its European business, Tesh Durvasula, is now the interim president and CEO. The company’s board is currently searching externally and internally for a permanent CEO, including Durvasula.

[Related: Dell’s Midrange.next Storage Launch Delayed ‘To Address Feedback’]

Under Wojtaszek leadership, the Dallas-based data center company has grown into a $981 million company and expanded globally into Asia, Europe and Latin America.

The former CEO also was critical to taking the company public in 2013 when shared were priced around $19 per share. CyrusOne currently has a $7.78 billion market cap with a price per share of approximately $69. In October 2019, the company’s stock hit an all-time high of more than $77 per share.

However, over the past six months the company has been rumored to being eyed for acquisition several times including by data center giant Digital Realty. CyrusOne says it is not currently pursuing a sale. Last month, CyrusOne confirmed that it is cutting 12 percent of its workforce due to a slowdown in demand from its hyperscale customers, which account for a significant portion of CyrusOne’s revenue.

CyrusOne operates nearly 50 data centers across the U.S., Europe and Asia, and is currently constructing what it says is the largest data center campus in Silicon Valley.

The company recently reported fourth quarter 2019 earnings of $254 million, up 15 percent year over year, with a net loss of $52 million. For the total year 2019, CyrusOne generated $981 million in sales, up nearly 20 percent year over year. The data center specialist said it expected to generate between $1.02 billion to $1.06 billion in revenue in 2020.

CyrusOne has witnessed massive growth in recent years thanks to hyperscale players like Amazon, Microsoft and Google spending billions each year on building new and equipping massive hyperscale data centers rapid rate. In the third quarter of 2019 alone, hyperscale players spent a whopping $31 billion in data center capex.

CyrusOne is a real estate investment trust that invests in carrier-neutral data centers and provides colocation services, providing mission-critical data centers that protects its 1,000 customers including more than 200 Fortune 1,000 companies.