CENTURY TEL / QWEST
CenturyTel, Inc., just keeps on buying. The telephone and Internet service provider agreed to acquire Qwest Communications International Inc. for $22.4 billion in stock and assumed debt less than a year after completing the $11.6 billion acquisition of Embarq Corporation [Big Deals, January 2009]. CenturyTel signed both deals with the intention of expanding its coverage network, which is particularly strong in smaller markets where landline telephony faces less competition from cellular phones and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) than it does in large cities.
