CenturyLink consolidates network business and operations teams

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) on Thursday announced that it has realigned its management structure by combining its network services business sales and operations teams under one common organization reporting to COO Karen Puckett.

Karen Puckett, CenturyLink

Puckett: Will lead CenturyLink's combined sales & operations teams.

Effective immediately, the company will combine the business sales and operations functions that were part of the telco's Enterprise Markets Group – Network Services and Regional Markets Group organizations.

However, the reorganization does not include CenturyLink's Wholesale Markets Group (WMG) and Enterprise Markets Group – Data Hosting segments.

Meanwhile, Savvis, CenturyLink's cloud, colocation and managed hosting services subsidiary, will continue to operate as an independent organization in the Data Hosting segment. Jim Ousley and Jeff Von Deylen will also retain their roles as CEO and president of the subsidiary.

Starting in Q1 2013, the service provider will report the following four segments in its financial statements: Consumer, Business, Wholesale and Data Hosting services.

"Our business segment continues to grow, and this organizational shift streamlines our end-to-end service delivery, support and sales to our network services enterprise customers by creating one cohesive organization focused on them," said Glen Post, CenturyLink's CEO and president, in a release.

Puckett has the experience to oversee these diverse divisions. She took a lead role in two of the telco's key acquisitions: Embarq, which spurred the company's evolution from CenturyTel to CenturyLink in 2009; and Qwest, in 2011. Before that, Puckett took part in the team that integrated 1.5 million access lines from GTE, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Madison River.

Despite its roots as a small-town telephone company as CenturyTel,with a small handful of business customers, CenturyLink has established itself as a major business services provider.

In Q3 2012, CenturyLink reported that its Enterprise Markets division's strategic revenues increased 7.2 percent to $341 million over Q3 2011 due to strong MPLS and Ethernet sales. Likewise, the Enterprise Markets--Data Hosting segment's operating revenues were $280 million, up 8.1 percent from pro forma Q3 2011.  

For more:
- see the release

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