Thursday Roundup:

Two M&A completions, an expansion, and some quantum:

Sparkle and Hellas have taken quantum-safe connectivity into orbit and back. The Italian-based service provider and the Greek satellite operator have implemented what is billed as the first quantum-safe satellite connection between two countries. The path is 72,000km is certainly the long way around from Sparkle’s Athens data center to Hellas Sat’s Cyprus facility, but that was hardly the point of course.

Rightfiber is now the real deal. Grain Management has completed its previously announced transaction combining Ritter communications and Great Plains Communications into one entity. Rightfiber starts out with 300K FTTH passings on 28,000 route miles of fiber serving 400 communities in 20 states. The company is led by CEO Heath Simpson and has raised a $1.6B credit facility for ongoing growth.

NetIX has added another internet exchange destination to its infrastructure. They have partnered with MSK-IX, extending their platform’s reach across Russia, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok. That’s a lot of geography, reaching all the way to the Pacific.

And Equinix has completed its acquisition of atNorth. The deal gives Equinix a stake in eight more facilities plus several ongoing projects across the Nordic region: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. The $4B deal was backed by CPP Investments, which will hold a 51% controlling stake in the purchased entity. Equinix will hold 34%, Partners Group will hold 10%, and internal stakeholders will hold the rest.

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