CenturyLink's Savvis acquisition gets FCC approval

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is one step closer to putting another piece of its cloud services puzzle together as the FCC has approved its acquisition of Savvis.

Already, CenturyLink's deal received an early termination notice under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

Upon completion of the deal, Savvis will become a wholly owned subsidiary of CenturyLink. The newly integrated hosting business, which will maintain the Savvis brand, will continue to be led by current Savvis CEO James E. Ousley and based in St. Louis, Mo.  

Both companies expect to begin integrating their operations later this year.

As a combined company, CenturyLink and Savvis will operate a total of 48 data centers in North America and Europe, a 207,000 route mile fiber network, and a 190,000 mile global access network. All of these assets will serve its current base of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 company customers.

For CenturyLink, the acquisition of Savvis and the former Qwest were both transformational deals that extend its focus beyond being another Tier 2 ILEC providing regulated voice services, especially on the business services front. While CenturyLink, and the former CenturyTel, did have a number of large business customers, the Qwest acquisition and Savvis deal establish the ILEC as a major enterprise and cloud services player.  

For more:
- see the release

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