Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Seeks To Establish A Data Center In Denmark

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is planning to set up a data center outside the US and a report from Reuters has revealed that the firm has its eye on Denmark.

Story continues below

Facebook has identified a port city known as Odense in Denmark as the ideal location. The country became one of Facebook’s target locations after it decided to abolish its controversial tax energy tax. This is because it is in the interest of the company to set up in a location where it will not incur heavy taxation costs. A website called fyens.dk has reported that the company has already invested more than £7.8 million to purchase a piece of land in the select location in Denmark.

“It takes years to get a site ready for a new data center, and because of the long lead time, we’re always evaluating potential new locations as we expand our global infrastructure,”pointed out Facebook in a statement.

If the company goes ahead with the plan, Denmark will host Facebook’s third data center outside the US. The other two facilities are located in Dublin, Ireland and Luleå, Sweden. Facebook’s plan for the Denmark data center has heavily been influenced by the decision on the country’s PSO tax. The latter was established in 1998 and has been imposed on private and business consumers.

The prevailing high tax rate of 11% translates to high electricity which Facebook is trying to avoid. Luckily for the company, the European Commission has advised the Danish government to eliminate the tax because it goes against EU regulations. Earlier this year, the Danish government agreed to gradually get rid of the PSO over a period of six years.

The presence of a data center in Denmark will have a positive impact on the country. It has been estimated that the data center will lead to the creation of roughly 1,200 jobs.

Facebook stocks closed the latest trading session at $128.77, marking a positive improvement by $0.50 or 0.39% compared to the value of the stock in the previous trading session.

An ad to help with our costs