Minnesota, Virginia Sign Off on CenturyLink-Level 3 Merger

Minnesota and Virginia are the latest states to approve CenturyLink‘s big Level 3 purchase.

CenturyLink’s John Jones

The two states joined Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Ohio, Utah and West Virginia in approving the merger. The deal also recently received regulatory clearance from Puerto Rico and Montana, joining Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada and Texas.

“More than 15 states and territories have approved or cleared the CenturyLink-Level 3 merger, showing that regulators understand this transaction will create a robust, resilient and secure network and improve the combined company’s ability to meet the ever-increasing demands of customers,” said John Jones, CenturyLink’s senior vice president for public policy and government relations. “The strength of our combined network will help customers access higher bandwidth services in more locations and connect more businesses to customers around the globe.”

CenturyLink said the merger, announced last October, should allow the combined company to offer enterprise and wholesale customers a “broader and more complementary range of services and solutions, and position the combined company to enable the advanced technology and growing bandwidth needs of its customers, including small businesses, large businesses, large multinational enterprises and government entities.”

The two companies anticipate gaining the remaining state, federal and international approvals in time to complete the merger by Sept. 30.