Private Equity Firm Takes Majority Stake In Data Center Manager Salute
Veteran-focused data center operations and talent specialist Salute has received a significant investment from asset manager New Mountain Capital, the firms announced Monday.
While the financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed, the announcement says New York-based New Mountain will take a majority stake in Salute, which primarily staffs, manages and operates data centers owned by other firms. Salute’s previous investor, LLR Partners, will maintain a “significant minority investment” in the firm, the companies said in a joint statement.
Salute also specializes in recruiting and training former members of the U.S. armed forces, with veterans accounting for around 40% of its workforce, according to the company.
Known as Salute Mission Critical prior to a rebrand earlier this year, the Wisconsin-based firm has grown rapidly since LLR initially backed the company in 2021. Salute operates in more than 100 markets globally, and it counts major data center providers like Digital Realty, EdgeConneX, Corscale Data Centers and Compass Datacenters among its clients.
Much of the firm’s previous expansion has come through mergers and acquisitions. In 2022, Salute acquired U.S. data center consultancy Iconicx Critical Solutions and UK-based AMS Helix, a digital infrastructure solutions provider. Last year, Salute bought Irish data center engineering and electrical consulting firm OBMG.
The company’s talent and management services have also grown beyond data center operations, with separate business lines focused on other aspects of the data center life cycle, from design and construction to decommissioning and retrofitting services.
New Mountain’s investment in Salute comes as data center providers face severe staffing and workforce development challenges. A lack of qualified operations talent has emerged as one of the most intractable issues facing the data center industry since 2020, with most data center firms struggling to fill open positions, according to industry think tank Uptime Institute.
It is an issue that is expected to worsen in the months ahead as a wave of new data center construction collides with a “silver Tsunami” of data center operations professionals hitting retirement age.
