An Australian technology company has given hundreds of workers a $65,000 bonus and the combined donations are worth a staggering $22 million.
Sydney-based data processing company AirTrunk has given its 330 workers the cash boost ahead of a major deal with US asset management company Blackstone this month.
The American company announced in September that it had acquired AirTrunk for a whopping $24 billion, and AirTrunk gave its workers pay to celebrate the acquisition.
More than a hundred senior employees are also part of a profit-sharing agreement with the company.
The $65,000 bond is enough to pay a 10 per cent deposit on a house in some parts of Australia, including Darwin, where the median house price is $589,166.
AirTrunk, which specializes in managing large data centers to protect companies’ digital information, is no stranger to providing benefits to its workers.
Founder and CEO Robin Khuda paid for the airfare of most of his employees for a trip to Bali earlier this year to attend a company conference held in the vacation destination.
Workers took part in various activities as part of the “annual strategy meeting”, including assembling push bikes for a local charity.
Data processing company AirTrunk gave its 330 workers the cash boost ahead of a major deal with Blackstone this month (pictured, AirTrunk workers in Bali earlier this year).
Khuda is one of Australia’s richest CEOs and is worth more than $1 billion.
The company, which operates 11 data centers in Australia, Malaysia and Japan, has several high-profile technology clients, including Google, Microsoft and Amazon.
Khuda, who founded AirTrunk in 2015, said he wants to grow the business into a $100 billion company.
‘We have always been ambitious. We are 24 billion dollars. We only have to grow four times, practically, to reach that level,” he said. The Australian.
Khuda said the company has forged strong ties with big tech companies following significant investments in cloud computing infrastructure.
“We had the benefit of Covid, which accelerated the migration to the cloud,” he said.
“Now, with AI, there is a significant amount of growth coming, so we were in the right place at the right time.”
Major tech companies are set to invest a whopping $1 trillion over the next five years.
Khuda said AirTrunk will support its continued efforts to integrate cloud computing services into its businesses.
The company attracted scrutiny from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for its sale in August, the Australian Financial Review reported.
The $20 billion sale was announced by AirTrunk’s previous owners, Macquarie Asset Management and PSP Investments.
Khuda was previously CEO of mobile payments company Mint Wireless, but left the role after just six months.
He was also the founding executive of data center operator NEXTDC and also worked at Optus and Fujitsu when he began his career.