The St. Paul, Minn.-based firm expects its deal to buy CoolIT from asset manager KKR to close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approvals. Ecolab expects its new Canadian acquisition to bring in about US$550 million in sales over the next year, and increase its own organic sales growth by one percentage point. (The Logic)

Talking point: Buying CoolIT lets its new owner capitalize on the red-hot data centre market. Ecolab is a major player in water-treatment technology. It already sells equipment and services that help manage the flow of liquid into and out of compute facilities and the power plants that energize them. CoolIT takes Ecolab further inside the data centre walls, where the Calgary firm’s systems help bring down the temperature on the servers and other equipment running AI models and software. The deal hikes CoolIT’s valuation significantly from the reported US$270 million at which KKR bought it in May 2023