Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) has officially created a new holding company called Windstream Holdings, Inc., which will become a new publicly traded parent company of Windstream Corp. and its various operating subsidiaries.
Beginning on Sept. 3, the new company will trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the existing Windstream ticker symbol "WIN."
The telco said that the new ownership design will enhance its corporate structure and provide greater financial and strategic flexibility in the future.
Beginning at 4 p.m. EDT today, existing shares of its common stock will convert into equivalent shares of Windstream Holdings, Inc., stock on a one-for-one basis. Windstream stockholders don't have to take any action during this process.
Formation of the new holding company should be no great surprise as Windstream's CFO Tony Thomas talked about the idea of the holding company during the earnings call.
With this new structure in place, current Windstream Corp. and other assets it purchased would become a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of the public trading company.
While not making the blockbuster deals that fellow telcos CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) and Frontier (Nasdaq: FTR) made with their acquisitions of Qwest and Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) rural lines, Windstream has acquired a number of assets in recent years, including PAETEC and a number of data center-based companies such as Hosted Solutions.
For more:
- see the release
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