CenturyLink OK With Verizon Partnership, No Need for Wireless Deal
CenturyLink Inc. apparently isn’t interested in getting directly into the wireless business.
The nation’s third-largest fixed landline provider has executed some major acquisitions in recent years, but it doesn’t have a desire to make a wireless buy, J.P. Morgan analyst Philip Cusick wrote, citing a presentation by CenturyLink’s CFO R. Stewart Ewing during J.P. Morgan’s 40th annual Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in Boston.
“They think their Verizon partnership is enough for wireless,” Cusick wrote. “They don’t think they need a wireless product.”
On its website, CenturyLink lists itself is an authorized agent for Verizon Wireless and sells mobile phones and plans to businesses and consumers. A spokesman for CenturyLink said the company sells Verizon Wireless in its 37-state territory, and the offerings are limited to residential and small business customers.
CenturyLink has been busy integrating a number of acquisitions, including its purchase of Savvis Inc., the provider of cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprises.
Cusick indicated that CenturyLink’s appetite to purchase another company would be intended to bolster Savvis through a potential acquisition of metro fiber or data center assets.
“They don’t really have to do an acquisition to grow that though,” Cusick wrote. “They can use capital budget to invest internally and build more data centers for SAVVIS.”
