A broadband behemoth is born: Century Link to buy Level 3 Communications for $24 Billion

By Narottam Medhora and Supantha Mukherjee – Telecom company CenturyLink Inc said on Monday it would buy Level 3 Communications Inc in a cash-and-stock deal with an equity value of about $24 billion to expand its fiber optic network and high-speed data services.

Level 3 shares were up about 5.5 percent at $57  in premarket trading while CenturyLink’s shares were down 11.2 percent at $27. CenturyLink will offer $26.50 in cash and 1.4286 of its shares for each Level 3 share held. The deal will increase CenturyLink’s network by 200,000 miles of fiber and combine Level 3’s enterprise services with its network that provides internet and telephone offerings to millions of customers. CenturyLink operates more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia and provides broadband, voice, video, data and managed services over a 250,000 mile fiber network in the United States and a 300,000 mile international network.

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