Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland and the District of Columbia recently joined the states of Georgia, Ohio, Utah and West Virginia in approving the merger of CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) and Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE: LVLT). The merger also recently received regulatory clearance from Texas, in addition to previous regulatory clearances from the states of Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana and Nevada.
"These additional approvals show that regulators understand the CenturyLink - Level 3 merger will bring substantial service benefits to our customers, employees and communities," said CenturyLink Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Government Relations John F. Jones. "The combined company will have a stronger and larger network that will help drive economic growth and connect consumers and businesses to the power of the digital world."
The merger, announced Oct. 31, 2016, should allow the combined companies to offer enterprise and wholesale customers a broader and more complementary range of services and solutions, positioning the combined companies to enable the advanced technology and growing bandwidth needs of all customers, including small businesses, large businesses, large multinational enterprises and government entities.
In December 2016, CenturyLink began filing applications with the appropriate federal and state regulatory agencies. The transaction is subject to the companies receiving various regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The two companies continue to expect to receive the remaining state, federal and international approvals in time to complete the merger by Sept. 30, 2017.
About CenturyLink
CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is a global communications, hosting, cloud and IT services company enabling millions of customers to transform their businesses and their lives through innovative technology solutions. CenturyLink offers network and data systems management, big data analytics and IT consulting, and operates more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia. The company provides broadband, voice, video, data and managed services over a robust 250,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and a 300,000-route-mile international transport network. Visit CenturyLink for more information.
