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Paul, Weiss advised IonQ, a leading commercial quantum computing and networking company, on its acquisition of Capella Space Corporation, a leader in space-based signals platforms for top-secret government and commercial applications. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

With the acquisition finalized, IonQ will begin developing a global space-to-space and space-to-ground satellite quantum key distribution (QKD) network. QKD is a secure method for exchanging encryption keys to ensure that they can’t be intercepted or copied without detection. These keys can then be used to encrypt and decrypt messages.

The Paul, Weiss team was led by corporate partners Rob Kindler and Chelsea Darnell, and included partners Timothy Cruickshank, Brian Kim and Patricia Vaz de Almeida, and counsel Nathan Mitchell and Lyudmila Bondarenko; antitrust partners Scott Sher, Ross Ferguson and Yuni Sobel and counsel Chad de Souza; executive compensation partner Jean McLoughlin; tax partner Brian Krause; litigation partner John Carlin and  counsel Audrey Paquet; and intellectual property partner Jonathan Ashtor and counsel Matthew Rosenberg.