Lumen has announced an agreement to acquire Alkira, a cloud-native, carrier-agnostic networking platform that enables enterprises to design, deploy, and operate connectivity across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The proposed transaction pairs Alkira’s cloud-native control plane with Lumen’s existing fiber network, advancing the company’s digital platform strategy to deliver cloud-like consumption for global enterprise networking. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Alkira’s platform currently sits deeply inside the major public clouds — including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud — allowing customers to manage connectivity across data centers, partner ecosystems, and on-premises environments through a single software layer. The acquisition will extend Lumen into East-West connectivity, the data movement between data centers, clouds, and AI workloads, which the company described as the fastest-growing segment of enterprise networking. Lumen said the deal expands its total addressable market from approximately $23 billion to approximately $70 billion and moves the company up the stack from foundational network infrastructure to a unified, software-driven cloud and enterprise interconnect platform.
Both companies serve enterprise customers across financial services, retail, technology, healthcare, and manufacturing globally. Lumen said Alkira’s control plane is designed to complement, not replace, its existing Lumen Connect customer interface, which provides self-service, API-driven access to Lumen’s programmable network. Together, the two platforms are expected to create a more complete Network-as-a-Service offering, simplifying multi-cloud integration, accelerating enterprise access to hyperscaler infrastructure, and positioning Lumen as a neutral, software-driven control plane across the ecosystem.
Until the transaction closes, Lumen and Alkira will continue to operate as separate, independent companies, with no changes to existing pricing, contract terms, or service levels for current customers.
