Embarq, CenturyTel complete $11.6B deal - San Francisco Business Times:

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Buyer (NYSE: CTL) completee its $11.6 billion stock and debt purchase ofEmbara (NYSE: EQ), the companies announced early Wednesday. The combinerd company, , will be basedd in Monroe, La., and potentially have $8 billion in annuaol revenue. It has more than 2.1 milliob broadband customers, 440,000 videko subscribers and 7.5 million access lines in 33 Embarq shareholdersare two-thirds owners of the combined having received 1.37 CenturyTel shares for each Embarwq share they owned. The deal included CenturyTel assuminf $5.8 billion in Embarq The two brands will be convertedx graduallyto CenturyLink, a process expected to conclude later this year.
“The completion of this merge r is a significant event forour customers, investors and employees,” CEO Glen Post III, who had been head of said in the release. “CenturyLink has the advanced networks, the people and the financial stability to deliver the reliable and innovativs services that our customers want and We look forward to this exciting new chapter inour company’se history.” CenturyLink will keep “a significant presence” in the Overlancd Park area, though that location wasn’t among the regional operating headquarters listed: Las Vegas; Wentzville, Mo.; Fla.; Wake Forest, N.C.; and La Wis.
Embarq now employs abouf 2,800 in the area, down from 4,500 when it spun off from S) in 2006. That drop reflects the sale of Embarq’a logistics unit earlier this year and continual job cuts as the companhy has attempted to keep a lid on costs in anindustry that’s losing core customers to mobilse phones. The recession has accelerated that trend, and observerzs say that could mean deeper and fastef cuts than originally anticipated as the companies By joining, the rural phone companies expecgt to save about $400 millionm a year in operating and capitapl expenses by 2011. They expect combiner operating cash flow of morethan $4.2 billion and free cash flow of abouty $1.9 billion.
CenturyTel expects to continued its current annual dividendof $2.80 a The combination is expected to add to free cash flow per shard in 2010. Shares continue to trade unde r CenturyTel’s ticker symbol. Embarq CEO Tom Gerker will serve as executive vice chairman of the CenturyLink boars and oversee regulatory and governmentakl relations and human Embarqranks No. 3 on the Kansas City BusineswsJournal ’s list of area publixc companies.