The sale process for phoenixNAP has advanced into the second round, with bids in the first round topping USD 1bn, said sources familiar with the matter.

The company is being marketed off USD 70m in EBITDA in a BofA Securities-led process, the sources said.

A USD 1bn price tag for the business would amount to a 14.3x EV/EBITDA multiple, in a market where data center operators are trading at over 20x. News reports last year suggested the company generated USD 50m of EBITDA.

While Phoenix is viewed as a robust market, the company operates a bare metal cloud segment, which cannot be placed into a REIT and could dampen valuations, one of the sources said.

phoenixNAP was established in 2009 by Stephanie Cadwell and Ron Cadwell, according to filings with the Arizona Corporation Commission. Ron Cadwell is listed as the company’s current CEO, according to LinkedIn.

Cadwell and the company, which has not publicized any outside equity ownership, did not respond to emails seeking comment.

A spokesperson for BofA Securities declined to comment.

In addition to its flagship Phoenix data center, the company has points of presence in multiple cities around the globe, including Chicago, Seattle, and Frankfurt as well as Warsaw, Madrid, and Sydney.

In 2021, the company acquired land adjacent to its Phoenix data center for expansion, according to a press release at the time.