Phone company CenturyLink Inc (CTL.N) plans to buy Savvis Inc (SVVS.O) for $2.5 billion in cash and stock to beef up its data center business and cash in on growing demand for cloud services. The deal comes at a time when regional phone companies like CenturyLink, which acquired rival Qwest for $10.6 billion earlier this month, need to find new ways to grow as consumers disconnect home phones in favor of Web and mobile services. The Savvis buy, announced on Wednesday, would help CenturyLink boost revenue from data centers, which are large warehouses filled with computer storage servers. These centers help companies cut costs by hosting software that consumers can access via the Internet -- a trend known as cloud services. Data center operators have seen a spurt of recent deals, including Verizon Communications' (VZ.N) $1.4 billion purchase of Terremark Worldwide.
CenturyLink, Inc., formerly CenturyTel, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, is an integrated communications company engaged primarily in providing a range of communications services, including local and long distance voice, wholesale local network access, high-speed Internet access, other data services and video services. Shares of CTL fell by 0.19% or $-0.0768/share to $40.2432. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $14.16 and as high as $46.87. On average, 4778170 shares of CTL exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 4315257.
SAVVIS, Inc. (SAVVIS) provides information technology (IT), services including cloud services, managed hosting, managed security, colocation, professional services, and network services, through its global infrastructure to businesses and government agencies around the world. Shares of SVVS traded higher by 8.97% or $3.23/share to $39.25. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $14.47 and as high as $37.98. On average, 937625 shares of SVVS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 24227204.
Verizon Communications Inc. (Verizon) is a holding company. Shares of VZ traded higher by 1.76% or $0.661/share to $38.291. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $25.99 and as high as $38.95. On average, 16129100 shares of VZ exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 10131677.
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