Here’s a quick rundown of news from global network providers from over the break and the start of the week:
GTT has polished off its acquisition of KPN International, which operated the Dutch-based provider’s global IP backbone. The €50M deal expands GTT’s customer base and lets KPN refocus further on its core geography and business. Last week GTT hired advisors to help it consider selling off it’s infrastructure side, which ironically includes the fiber and conduit infrastructure that Interoute once bought from KPN in an earlier deal.
Telxius has made an inorganic move down in South America. They have acquired 1,909 towers from Telefonica Brasil, doubling their presence in the country and passing the 20K tower milestone. That makes more than 3,000 new towers in their South American portfolio in 2019 alongside plans for another 1,000 to come on the organic front. The deal cost Telxius some €140M.
Sparkle has continued to execute on its expansion in Sicily. They have enhanced their Palermo hub by adding remote peering capabilities from DE-CIX. The arrangement allows Sparkle customers the ability to leverage their presence in Palermo to peer with other networks across DE-CIX’s global interconnection footprint.
And last week over the Thanksgiving break, CenturyLink detailed a few of its recent metro buildout projects. Over in Europe they have added 40 metro route miles in Madrid, built out new connectivity throughout Marseille, and hookied up another 90 data centers across the continent. Meanwhile back in the US they have built out 30 miles of new metro infrastructure in Troy, Michigan.
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Categories: Interconnection · Internet Backbones · Mergers and Acquisitions · Metro fiber · Towers
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GTT finishes the KPN acquisition just as it hires bankers to unload European fiber assets? This is the type of stupid management that makes telecom such a mess. All about arbitrage; never about building a lasting business.
Peter, build a lasting business? now why would anyone want to do that! lol the habitual behavior in our industry is something!
When management performance targets are growing top line, and improving EBITDA, and the market continually rewards growth at any cost, this is what happens.