Three years after an Anchorage company trying to build a fiber optic cable from Asia to Europe via Alaska was bought by an out-of-state investment firm, Quintillion is back under Alaskan management. GCI is acquiring Quintillion’s holding company, Q Gateway Intermediate Holdings, as well as its 1,800 miles of subsea and terrestrial fiber and 1,500 miles of planned fiber expansion.
Unified Network Operations
Under terms of the transaction, GCI will acquire 100 percent of the equity in Quintillion at a $310 million enterprise value, subject to customary working-capital and other adjustments. GCI will reimburse up to $50 million of qualifying capital expenditures related to the Nome-to-Homer Express project. Additional consideration may be payable in 2028, 2029, and 2031 through a post-closing earnout dependent on achievement of certain financial metrics.
In 2023, Washington, DC-based private investment firm Grain Management acquired Quintillion’s parent corporate umbrella, QSH Parent Holdco, hoping to guide its plans for global broadband connections.
Founded in 2015, Quintillion constructed and operates a 1,200-mile subsea and 500-mile terrestrial fiber optic network in Northern Alaska. A planned three-phase subsea cable system would connect Asia to the American Pacific Northwest, and to Western Europe via the Northwest Passage and through the Alaska and Canadian Arctic…