Vertiv acquires Great Lakes Data Racks for USD $200 million
Vertiv has entered into an agreement to acquire the Great Lakes Data Racks & Cabinets family of companies for USD $200 million.
The deal aims to broaden Vertiv's capabilities in providing high-density integrated infrastructure solutions, particularly for data centre environments increasingly driven by artificial intelligence requirements.
Strategic expansion
The agreed purchase price equates to roughly 11.5 times the anticipated 2026 EBITDA after including cost synergies and cross-selling opportunities, according to the companies involved. Vertiv expects that integrating Great Lakes will improve its offering of pre-engineered, AI-ready rack solutions targeted at enterprise, edge, colocation, and hyperscale AI markets.
Great Lakes, founded in 1985 and headquartered in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, maintains manufacturing and assembly operations in both the United States and Europe. Its product portfolio encompasses both standard and customised racks, integrated cabinets, seismic cabinets, and advanced cable management access features suitable for retrofit or new build applications. The company has developed a reputation for focusing on highly tailored data rack enclosures and infrastructure products for data centres.
According to Vertiv, the acquisition positions it to strengthen its ability to deliver an expanded set of products and services for digital infrastructure customers. Bringing Great Lakes into the Vertiv portfolio is also expected to enhance Vertiv's status in the critical white space market, which centres around supporting key information technology operations within data centres.
"Great Lakes is a leading rack manufacturer with an extensive portfolio of high-end rack solutions and innovation capabilities that are essential in an increasingly demanding high-density AI infrastructure environment," said Gio Albertazzi, CEO at Vertiv. "With the acquisition of Great Lakes, Vertiv strengthens its position as a premier technology solutions provider in the critical white space market. Our combined capabilities enable us to deliver comprehensive, engineered infrastructure solutions that go beyond basic integration, addressing the complex challenges of next-generation AI technology."
Customer and operational impact
Vertiv has indicated that customers could see a number of advantages from the merger, including the ability to source infrastructure from a single provider, more rapid deployment via pre-engineered products, operational efficiencies by integrating Vertiv's proprietary power and cooling systems at the factory, and improved scaling for AI and edge computing use cases. The expanded service network is also intended to provide comprehensive support to customers globally.
Great Lakes' structure will complement Vertiv's existing range, providing added options for both retrofitting current facilities and enabling new data centre builds. With the continued increase in demand for data management driven by digital transformation and AI, companies operating in the data centre sector are seeking to bolster the reliability and scalability of their infrastructure.
Deal structure and approvals
The transaction between Vertiv and Great Lakes is expected to finalise during the third quarter of 2025. The closing is subject to customary conditions, including the necessary regulatory approvals under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.
The companies did not disclose any anticipated changes to workforce or management structure as a result of the acquisition, noting that integration planning would proceed following completion of regulatory review and transaction closing.
Industry context
With the acquisition, Vertiv is moving to close gaps in its digital infrastructure portfolio, especially as enterprise and technology service providers adapt to the growing demands of AI-driven computing. By combining Great Lakes' specialised rack and cabinet technologies with Vertiv's existing power and cooling capabilities, the combined entity anticipates providing tailored infrastructure solutions to meet emerging requirements across a diverse set of data centre environments.
