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Organization and Description of Business
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2019
Organization and Description of Business  
Organization and Description of Business

1. 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, 2019 and 2018 is as follows:

Data Centers

As of December 31, 2019

As of December 31, 2018

    

    

    

Unconsolidated

    

    

    

Unconsolidated

    

Region

Operating

Held for Sale (1)

Joint Ventures

Total

Operating

Held for Sale

Joint Ventures

Total

United States

119

11

17

147

131

14

145

Europe

 

41

 

 

41

 

38

 

 

38

Latin America

 

 

19

 

19

 

16

 

 

16

Asia

 

5

 

5

 

10

 

3

 

4

 

7

Australia

 

5

 

 

5

 

5

 

 

5

Canada

 

2

1

 

 

3

 

3

 

 

3

Total

 

172

12

 

41

 

225

 

196

 

18

214

(1)Includes 10 Powered Base Building® properties, which comprise 12 data centers, that are held for sale to a third party as of December 31, 2019 (see note 5).

On December 20, 2018, the Operating Partnership and Stellar Participações S.A. (formerly 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 $2.0 billion, including cash purchased. We refer to this transaction as the Ascenty Acquisition. In March 2019, we formed a joint venture with Brookfield Infrastructure, an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, one of the largest owners and operators of infrastructure assets globally. Brookfield invested approximately $702 million in exchange for 49% of the total equity interests in the joint venture which owns and operates Ascenty. A subsidiary of the Operating Partnership retained the remaining equity interest in the Ascenty joint venture. The power to control the Ascenty joint venture is shared equally between the Operating Partnership and Brookfield and as a result of losing control, the Operating Partnership deconsolidated Ascenty on March 29, 2019. See note 6 for additional information.

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, Santiago and São Paulo metropolitan areas in Latin America, and the Hong Kong, Melbourne, Osaka, Seoul, 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, 2019, Digital Realty

Trust, Inc. owns a 95.9% common interest and a 100.0% preferred interest in the Operating Partnership. As of December 31, 2018, Digital Realty Trust, Inc. owned a 95.1% 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.

As used in these Notes: “DFT” refers to DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc.; “DFT Merger” refers to the Company’s acquisition of DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc.; “DFT Operating Partnership” refers to DuPont Fabros Technology, L.P.; “European Portfolio Acquisition” refers to the Company’s acquisition of a portfolio of eight data centers in Europe; and “Telx Acquisition” refers to the Company’s acquisition of Telx Holdings, Inc.