A Market Consolidates

The telecom market was in full-blown merger and acquisition mode this year.

Telecom giant Verizon kicked off 2016 by announcing it would acquire telecom provider XO Communications for its fiber-optic network assets in a deal worth about $1.8 billion in February. The deal gained FCC approval in November.  CenturyLink in October revealed plans to scoop up Broomfield, Colo.-based service provider Level 3 for $34 billion. Combined, the two companies will be able to offer a combination of cloud and data services for business customers over a wide-reaching, high-speed network. In November, Little Rock, Ark.-based Windstream and Atlanta-based EarthLink announced merger plans to create a large, national footprint to compete better against Verizon and AT&T. The all-stock transaction was valued at $1.1 billion.