Friday Bytes: Level 3, Interoute, Equinix, XO, Arrow, DBAK, NYI

Here’s our recurring Friday quick look at other news from around the sector, as we digest the big metro fiber consolidation week we’ve had in the US.

After a well received first quarter earnings report, Level 3 is looking to take further advantage of the current window in the debt markets. Not long after moving to refinance all the bonds they have that are callable in the near term, they have now moved to refinance their $2B Tranche B term loan due 2022 as well. That must be a nice debt market window, as Level 3 just amended the same credit facility to create this loan a mere seven months ago. The interest rate then was LIBOR+3.5% and the proceeds helped Level 3 pay for tw telecom.

Interoute has found some new room to expand its reach, and it’s been looking beyond its usual European haunts to do it. This week they opened a new PoP in Singapore to go with their existing presence in Hong Kong. A larger presence in APAC lets them better serve European enterprises with needs in that region of course.  Interoute recently announced a shift in its ownership structure as well as an intent to turn its eye toward more consolidation.

Equinix likes the Australian market at the moment, and plans to invest another $97M into what will their fourth facility in the city. The new SY4 IBX will be located in Alexandria not far from the other three, and will add 135,000 square feet with 1,500 cabinets in the first phase. Meanwhile, Equinix’s Cloud Exchange has helped XO hook up with Microsoft Azure.

Arrow Electronics’ strategy of using its ArrowSphere cloud ecosystem to better-retain and expand its base of 5,000+ VAR partners seems to be working. Denver-based DBAK, one of Arrow’s largest Oracle VARs, announced yesterday it will address strong customer demand for cloud by expanding its Arrow engagement to include all ArrowSphere services.  The opportunities presented by the cloud are really starting to reshape the channel.

And in New Jersey, the colo and managed services provider NYI has picked up a new customer.  Sailthru is moving into their Bridgewater, NJ data center as the company expand its personalization solutions.

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Categories: Channel · Cloud Computing · Datacenter · Financials · Internet Backbones