Organization and Description of Business

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. through its controlling interest in Digital Realty Trust, L.P. (the Operating Partnership) and the subsidiaries of the Operating Partnership (collectively, we, our, us or the Company) is a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions for customers across a variety of industry verticals ranging from cloud and information technology services, communications and social networking to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and consumer products. The Operating Partnership, a Maryland limited partnership, is the entity through which Digital Realty Trust, Inc., a Maryland corporation, conducts its business of owning, acquiring, developing and operating data centers. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. operates as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. A summary of our data center portfolio as of December 31, 2018 and 2017 is as follows:



	Data Centers
	As of December 31, 2018						As of December 31, 2017
Region	Operating			Held for Sale	Unconsolidated Joint Ventures	Total	Operating			Held for Sale	Unconsolidated Joint Ventures	Total
United States	131			—	14	145	131	⁽²	⁾	7	14	152
Europe	38			—	—	38	38			—	—	38
Latin America	16	⁽¹	⁾	—		16	—			—	—	—
Asia	3			—	4	7	3			—	4	7
Australia	5			—	—	5	5			—	—	5
Canada	3			—	—	3	3	⁽²	⁾	—	—	3
Total	196			—	18	214	180			7	18	205


(1)	Includes 16 data centers acquired as part of the Ascenty Acquisition, eight of which are under construction.


(2)	Includes 15 data centers acquired as part of the merger with DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc., of which 14 are located in the United States and one is located in Canada.

On December 20, 2018, the Operating Partnership and Stellar Participações Ltda., a Brazilian subsidiary of the Operating Partnership, completed the acquisition of Ascenty, a leading data center provider in Brazil, for cash and equity consideration of approximately $1.8 billion, net of cash purchased. We refer to this transaction as the Ascenty Acquisition. Separately, we entered into an independent bilateral equity commitment letter with Brookfield Infrastructure, an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, one of the largest owners and operators of infrastructure assets globally, under which Brookfield has committed to fund approximately $700 million (unaudited), excluding Brookfield's share of transaction costs, in exchange for 49% of the total equity interests in a joint venture entity expected to ultimately own Ascenty. The agreement with Brookfield is subject to certain closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019.

We are diversified in major metropolitan areas where data center and technology customers are concentrated, including the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Northern Virginia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Toronto metropolitan areas in North America, the Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt, London and Paris metropolitan areas in Europe, the Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo metropolitan areas in Latin America, and the Hong Kong, Melbourne, Osaka, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo metropolitan areas in the Asia Pacific region. The portfolio consists of data centers, Internet gateway facilities and office and other non-data center space.

The Operating Partnership was formed on July 21, 2004 in anticipation of Digital Realty Trust, Inc.’s initial public offering (IPO) on November 3, 2004 and commenced operations on that date. As of December 31, 2018, Digital Realty Trust, Inc. owns a 95.1% common interest and a 100.0% preferred interest in the Operating Partnership. As of December 31, 2017, Digital Realty Trust, Inc. owned a 96.0% common interest and a 100.0% preferred interest in the Operating Partnership. As sole general partner of the Operating Partnership, Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has the full, exclusive and complete responsibility for the Operating Partnership’s day-to-day management and control. The limited partners of the Operating Partnership do not have rights to replace Digital Realty Trust, Inc. as the general partner nor do they have participating rights, although they do have certain protective rights.