DuPont Fabros Technology

DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc.

Industry	Real estate investment trust
Founded	March 2, 2007 (2007-03-02)
Defunct	Template:End date and age
Fate	Acquired by Digital Realty
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Key people	Christopher P. Eldredge, CEO Lammot J. du Pont, Chairman Jeffrey H. Foster, CFO
Products	Data centers
Revenue	Increase $0.528 billion (2016)
Net income	Increase $0.181 billion (2016)
Total assets	Increase $3.034 billion (2016)
Total equity	Increase $0.962 billion (2016)
Number of employees	122

DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc. (abbreviated as DFT) was a real estate investment trust that specialized in carrier-neutral data centers, providing services such as colocation and peering. The firm was acquired by Digital Realty in 2017.

Operations

By December 31, 2016, DFT's portfolio comprised 11 data center facilities encompassing over 3.3 million net rentable square feet. These properties were situated in Northern Virginia (8 facilities), Elk Grove Village, Illinois (2 facilities), and Santa Clara, California (1 facility). The company primarily leased wholesale space to clients seeking to develop their own data centers.

Serving 32 clients overall, DFT generated 92% of its revenue from its top 15 customers. Key tenants included Microsoft (25.4%), Facebook (20.2%), Rackspace (9%), and Yahoo! (6%).

History

The enterprise was co-founded by Lammot J. du Pont, a former JPMorgan Chase analyst, alongside real estate developer Hossein Fateh, initially expanding its holdings by acquiring data centers previously owned by defunct internet service providers.

Among its early acquisitions were five data centers purchased from Savvis for $52 million in 2004 and a 230,000 square foot facility acquired from AOL for $58.5 million in 2005.

Formed as a REIT on March 2, 2007, DFT launched its initial public offering in October 2007, raising $640 million—ranking as the seventh-largest REIT IPO at that time.

Due to financing limitations, the company temporarily halted construction activities in early 2008.

In 2009, it earned recognition as the fastest-growing business in the Washington metropolitan region.

Board restructuring occurred in 2011 when John T. Roberts Jr. succeeded Mohammed Mark Amin.

In 2012, CEO Hossein Fateh opted to forgo his $450,000 salary in exchange for access to the corporate jet.

That same year saw the company achieve its highest leasing volume to date.

Mohammed Mark Amin was implicated in insider trading allegations involving DFT securities during 2012.

Expansion efforts continued with the inauguration of a new data center facility in Ashburn, Virginia, in September 2014.

Christopher P. Eldredge assumed the role of CEO in February 2015.

In March 2015, DFT was honored with the Uptime Institute’s Brill Award recognizing excellence in Data Center Design.

March 2016 marked the acquisition of a 46.7-acre land parcel in Hillsboro, Oregon for $11.2 million as part of operational growth plans.

The firm divested a New Jersey data center campus for $125 million in June 2016.

In October 2016, DFT purchased the former Toronto Star printing plant for C$54.25 million with intentions to convert it into a data center.

May 2017 saw the acquisition of a 56.5-acre undeveloped property in Mesa, Arizona designated for a new data center campus.

In September 2017, Digital Realty completed its acquisition of DFT for $7.8 billion, signifying considerable expansion and consolidation within the sector.