Level 3 Communications officially part of CenturyLink

BROOMFIELD — CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) closed on its acquisition Wednesday of Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications (Nasdaq: LVLT).

The deal was a $34 billion acquisition. Holders of Level 3’s common stock received $26.50 per share in cash and just over 1.4 shares of CenturyLink stock for each Level 3 share they owned.

CenturyLink shareholders own about 51 percent of the combined company, while former Level 3 shareholders own 49 percent.

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The combined company is operating under the CenturyLink name. Level 3 has filed a notice of delisting with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

On Oct. 30, CenturyLink, of Monroe, La., got the final Federal Communications Commission approval it needed to finalize the deal.

The focus now is combining the networks, said Monica Walton, general manager over Colorado and from the Level 3 side of the merger.

“The advantage for us is there are 100,000 buildings on the network, much more than when it was just Level 3” Walton told BizWest. “They’re lit with our fiber already, meaning we can reach the customers end-to-end, rather  than rely on some other last-mile provider.”

With today being day 1, Walton was able to have her two sales teams, from the CenturyLink side and Level 3 side, meet for the first time. The next few weeks will be spent sharing information between the two one-time competitors.

Although Walton couldn’t speak to changes like a move to Louisana or employee cuts, she did say the company plans to maintain a strong presence in the Denver metro area, as well as other markets. She added CenturyLink plans to have the right number of employees to support customers efficiently across the globe.

“For us, it comes down to building a new CenturyLink,” she said. “We plan to build a better network with better customer offerings from a talented workforce combined from the strength of two companies. There’s nowhere to go but up.”