a March 2021 interview with Bloomberg, Lineage CEO Greg Lehmkuhl said the company is actively preparing its IPO. In May 2021, Lineage acquired Crystal Creek e-commerce fulfillment logistics operator and its five U.S. warehouses, increasing the company's acquisitions to 72. In July 2021, Lineage partnered with 8VC logistics technology venture capital firm, to further invest in the transportation and logistics technology sector. Operations In April 2013, the company received a $220 million loan, and acquired Seattle Cold Storage and a University Park, Illinois facility. By 2014, most Lineage customers were food producers requiring cold chain warehousing, transportation, and logistics; to meet demand, the company concentrated on automation and acquisition. In March 2014, the company agreed to purchase Millard Refrigerated Services for about $1 billion, its largest acquisition to date, making Lineage "the second-largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics company in the world." Lineage then acquired Loop Cold Storage, Oneida Cold Storage & Warehouse, Murphy Overseas, and two facilities in Watsonville, California from Dreisbach Enterprises and, that September, opened a new temperature-controlled warehouse in Santa Maria, California. By 2015, Lineage's facility network was ranked the second-largest in the world by the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses. With 111 facilities in 21 states, Lineage also ranked as the second largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics company in the United States. In January 2015, Lineage acquired the Pacific Northwest cold storage facilities of Columbia Colstor, headquartered in Moses Lake, Washington. In May 2016, the company opened a $150 million temperature-controlled warehouse in North Charleston, South Carolina, near the Port of Charleston, then acquired Consolidated Distribution Corporation of Lombard, Illinois that August, making Lineage the largest customized redistribution network in the United States. Two months later, it was reported that Lineage was considering locating a large facility at New Century AirCenter in Gardner, Kansas. but the proposed location resulted in lawsuits from local residents, and Lineage scrapped the project in November 2017 "due to a change in customer needs", though the project had received unanimous approval from county commissioners in July. In 2017, Lineage acquired Partner Logistics, a large European cold-chain storage supplier. The company purchased facilities from American Cold Storage, in the Midwest, and eight Los Angeles, California area warehouses from U.S. Growers Cold Storage, raising its employee roster to 7,200, with Lineage operating 120 temperature-controlled storage facilities.7,200 (2018) In April 2018, Lineage began building its first fully automated North American facility in Sunnyvale, Texas