Level 3 has completed its $5.7 billion purchase of TW Telecom. The move combines TW Telecom’s metro-fiber assets with Level 3’s international fiber connectivity that reaches 60 countries, while doubling Level 3’s sales force in North America.
Both companies serve the mobile market for backhaul and transport services, along with connecting cable companies and other Internet service providers.
The combined company has more than 13,000 employees and more than 200,000 route miles of fiber around the world, along with 350 multi-tenant data centers. The addition of TW Telecom propels Level 3 into the S&P 500 as of this week
After the deal was announced in June, the companies received approval from the Department of Justice in September. The Federal Communications Commission approved the acquisition on Oct. 24 and the deal was completed a week later.
Level 3 will report its earnings this week, with results from both companies to be discussed during the quarterly call. TW Telecom’s stock ceased trading as a separate company on Friday.
A research note from Stone Fox Capital noted that Level 3 has seen a “dramatic improvement in financials over the last couple of years,” going from consistent losses to a profit this year.
Watch an RCR Wireless interview from Level 3 headquarters in Broomfield, Colo., with Paul Savill, SVP of product management, on the impacts that the company is seeing from cloud, software-defined networking and network function virtualization, as well as 100G networks.
