Friday Bytes: Consolidated, Altice, Equinix, Colt, 123Net

TGIF.  Some M&A, two cloud connectivity moves, and a status update:

Consolidated Communications is moving to simplify things a bit after its recent acquisition of Fairpoint. They have entered into an agreement to sell Peoples Mutual Telephone Company and Peoples Mutual Long Distance Company to Riverstreet Networks, a subsidiary of North Carolina’s Wilkes Communications. The two Virginia properties generate some $6.5M in revenue, and were sold for $21M.

Altice is also moving to simplify things a bit, and is selling its Swiss data center and telecom properties. The private equity player InfraVia Capital Partners is spending some $217M to acquire the business, which includes Green.ch and four data centers. Altice will use the proceeds to cut its debt load.

Two companies have added more AWS capabilities this week. Equinix has added AWS Direct Connect services to the Equinix Cloud Exchange in four more of its data centers, making it available in Helsinki, Madrid, Manchester, and Toronto. And Colt has achieved AWS Network Competency status, differentiating themselves as an AWS Partner Network member. Colt has been putting a lot of effort into the SDN capabilities of its infrastructure.

123Net says it has passed a key mile marker in its growth, and now employs more than 100 people across its Michigan footprint. That’s up from 25 employees just five years ago, and the company is looking to add onther 15% this coming year if things go well.  We had 123Net CEO Dan Irvin on here for an Industry Spotlight over the summer.

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Categories: Cloud Computing · Jobs · Mergers and Acquisitions