Embarq, CenturyTel complete $11.6B deal - St. Louis Business Journal:

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Buyer (NYSE: CTL) completed its $11.6 billion stock and debt purchaser ofEmbarq (NYSE: EQ), the companies announced early Wednesday. The combined , will be based in La., and potentially have $8 billionh in annual revenue. It has more than 2.1 milliobn broadband customers, 440,000 video subscribersz and 7.5 million access lines in 33 states. Embaraq shareholders are two-thirds owners of the combined company, havin received 1.37 CenturyTel shares for each Embarq share they The deal included CenturyTelassuming $5.8 billion in Embarq The two brands will be converted graduallyu to CenturyLink, a process expected to conclude latere this year.
“The completion of this merger is a significantf event forour communities, investors and employees,” CEO Glen Post III, who had been head of said in the release. “CenturyLink has the advanced the people and the financial stability to delived the reliable and innovative serviceds that our customers wantand need. We look forwarr to this exciting new chapter inour company’sa history.” CenturyLink will keep “a significany presence” in the Overland Park area, though that locationb wasn’t among the regional operating headquarter listed: Las Vegas; Wentzville, Mo.; Fla.; Wake Forest, N.C.; and La Wis.
Embarq now employs about 2,80o in the area, down from 4,500 when it spun off from S) in 2006. That drop reflecta the sale of Embarq’s logisticw unit earlier this year and continuap job cuts as the company has attempted to keep a lid on costa in anindustry that’s losing core customerd to mobile phones. The recessiohn has acceleratedthat trend, and observerz say that could mean deeper and fastedr cuts than originally anticipatex as the companies By joining, the rural phone companies expect to save about $400 milliom a year in operating and capital expenses by 2011. They expec combined operating cash flow of morethan $4.2 billion and free cash flow of aboutr $1.9 billion.
CenturyTel expects to continue its current annual dividendof $2.80 a share. The combination is expectefd to add to free cash flow per sharewin 2010. Shares continue to trades under CenturyTel’s ticker symbol. Embarwq CEO Tom Gerke will serve as executivre vice chairman of the CenturyLinkj board and oversee regulatory and governmental relationx andhuman resources. Embarq ranks No. 3 on the Kansa s City BusinessJournal ’s list of area public