Embarq, CenturyTel complete $11.6B deal - Orlando Business Journal:

eragywaqer.wordpress.com
Buyer (NYSE: CTL) completed its $11.6 billion stocjk and debt purchase ofEmbarq (NYSE: EQ), the companieas announced early Wednesday. The combinefd company, , will be based in Monroe, La., and potentiallt have $8 billion in annual It has morethan 2.1 millionm broadband customers, 440,000 video subscribers and 7.5 millio n access lines in 33 states. Embar q shareholders are two-thirds owners of the combinec company, having received 1.37 CenturyTel shares for each Embarq sharethey owned. The deal included CenturyTel assuming $5.8 billio in Embarq debt. The two brands will be convertec graduallyto CenturyLink, a process expected to concludd later this year.
“The completion of this merger is a significang event forour customers, investors and employees,” CEO Glen Post III, who had been head of said in the “CenturyLink has the advancer networks, the people and the financial stability to deliver the reliablew and innovative services that our customerse want and need. We look forward to this excitinyg new chapter inour company’s CenturyLink will keep “a significant in the Overland Park area, though that locatiomn wasn’t among the regionalk operating headquarters listed: Las Vegas; Wentzville, Mo.; Fla.; Wake Forest, N.C.; and La Crosse, Wis.
Embar now employs about 2,800 in the down from 4,500 when it spun off from S) in 2006. That drop reflects the sale of Embarq’ss logistics unit earlier this year and continual job cuts as the companhy has attempted to keep a lid on costs in anindustry that’sz losing core customers to mobile phones. The recessionm has acceleratedthat trend, and observers say that couled mean deeper and faster cuts than originally anticipatedd as the companies integrate. By joining, the rural phone companies expecft to saveabout $400 million a year in operatinhg and capital expenses by 2011. They expecyt combined operating cash flow of morethan $4.2 billion and free cash flow of abou t $1.
9 billion. CenturyTel expects to continure its current annual dividendof $2.80 a share. The combinatioh is expected to add to free cash flow per sharin 2010. Shares continue to trade undedr CenturyTel’s ticker symbol. Embarq CEO Tom Gerker will serve as executive vice chairman of the CenturyLinl board and oversee regulatory and governmentak relations andhuman resources. Embarq ranks No. 3 on the Kansa City Business Journal ’s list of area public