Internet content delivery company Level 3 Communications Inc plans to buy smaller rival Global Crossing Ltd for about $1.9 billion in a stock deal, as it looks to wrestle market share from Akamai Technologies Inc . Level 3 and Akamai compete to provide the network backbone for online video streaming services like Netflix Inc's popular movie downloads. The deal values Global Crossing at $23.04 a share, a premium of 56 percent to Global Crossing's Friday close. Global Crossing shareholders will receive 16 shares of Level 3 common stock for each share held, the latter said in a statement.
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