BT to sell datacenteres to HP?

The Sunday Times carries a report that BT is in £1.5b talks with HP to sell its UK datacentres. to HP. 400 BT staff will transfer to BT. BT will take on the management of HP’s voice and data networks globally. It already runs them in Europe.

"It has 24 data centres in Britain that store vast amounts of information for corporate customers, but demand has been growing exponentially, and BT acknowledges that HP is better equipped to handle the increase. The company is to sign a 10-year contract to continue using the centres."

If true the deal would allow BT Global Services to concentrate on its IT Services type business. It would also leave BT "relatively ungeared". On the otherhand, datacentres are one of the major growth areas of the IT sector right now - one that BT might well have considered part of its natural evolution.

On Thursday, Ben Verwaayan presents BT's annual accounts for the last time. See today's FT - Chief bows out before BT's £10b connection. The FT article talks of difficulties in the implementation of 21CN due to software problems related to Ericsson's i-Node equipment. The expectation for BT's results are not that high. I'm sure Ben would have preferred to bow out on a rather higher note.