**Editor’s Note: Please click

here  for a recap of the biggest communications mergers in Q3 2013.**

Verizon has a deal in place to buy EdgeCast, which operates a content-delivery network.

Verizon Digital Media Services plans to integrate EdgeCast capabilities to improve and increase its ability to meet the growth in online digital media content, as well as to broaden its portfolio of site acceleration services for digital enterprises.

“The combination of EdgeCast and Verizon Digital Media Services will allow us to fully exploit and accelerate growth in Internet media consumption and online business performance,” said Bob Toohey, president of Verizon Digital Media Services. “EdgeCast’s industry-leading technology and strategically placed assets, combined with Verizon Digital Media Services’ video solutions, improves our ability to deliver the rich, reliable and quality digital media services that our customers have come to expect.”

EdgeCast has more than 6,000 accounts and serves major Web brands for global media delivery and acceleration services.

Verizon says this acquisition will further strengthen its ability to deliver content and site-acceleration services to customers, including studios, broadcasters, retailers and enterprises seeking quality high-performance digital experiences across all devices.

Both companies deliver advanced video solutions and share a common architectural approach to video-optimized networks.

Earlier this year, Verizon Digital Media Services announced the acquisition of upLynk assets, with their exclusive technology that streamlines the process of uploading and encoding of video for live, linear and video-on-demand content. The combination of complementary capabilities from Verizon, upLynk and EdgeCast is designed to further boost performance of Verizon Digital Media Services’ end-to-end services.

Verizon didn’t announce a purchase price, but media reports put it at more than $350 million. It’s been approved by both companies’ boards and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014, assuming closing conditions are met.

Follow senior online managing editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.