Tuesday Roundup: LightRiver, Epsilon, RETN, Vocus, TPG

A leadership change, an NaaS partnership, some 400G, and some interesting fiber M&A activity:

LightRiver has itself a newly minted CEO, and it’s a very familiar face. The network integration solution provider has promoted Mike Jonas to take over from founder and longtime leader Glenn Johansen, who will be retiring. Mike Jonas has been President of Customer Operations for a decade and one of the most visible evangelists for the company on the conference circuit. LightRiver is backed by Grain Management and handles the design and buildout of fiber and the equipment lighting it behind the scenes for many network operators.

Epsilon has lined up a new NaaS channel partner in the form of ExodusClouds. ExodusClouds will take a white-labeled version of Epsilon’s Infiny platform to the enterprise marketplace. They will use both Espilon’s ecosystem and global last mile reach to expand their own footprint into new markets. Currently ExodusClouds targets Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.

RETN has completed an upgrade of its pan-European network. With the help of Infinera, they will be adding 400G wavelengths across their fiber footprint. Alongside that, they are upgrading their own IP/MPLS reach with 400G technology with the help of Juniper. One of the early 400G deployments will be at the Budapest Internet Exchange’s PoP in Vienna, Austria.

And down in Australia there is some M&A drama going on. Vocus has apparently made a bid of US$4.23B for the fiber assets of TPG Telecom. Talks and due diligence will be underway for the next month or so before any decisions are made. But the deal would shift the infrastructure markets down under pretty substantially.

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Categories: Fiber Networks · Interconnection · Internet Backbones · Jobs · Mergers and Acquisitions · SDN · Software