Qwest — BrandWiki

Qwest

Overview

Qwest Communications International Inc.

type	Subsidiary
fate	Merged with CenturyLink
predecessor	US West
foundation	1996
defunct	August 1, 2011
founder	Phillip Anschutz
hq location	1801 California Street
location city	Denver, Colorado
location country	U.S.
area served	International
industry	Telecommunications
services	Telephone Internet Television
revenue	$13.778 billion (2007)
operating income	$1.730 billion (2007)
net income	$2.917 billion (2007)
assets	$22.532 billion (2007)
equity	$563 million (2007)
num employees	30,000 (2010)
parent	Lumen Technologies (2011–present)
subsid	Qwest Corporation
homepage	www.qwest.com
footnotes	‡R1R‡

Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho,Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

On April 22, 2010, CenturyLink announced it would acquire Qwest in a stock transaction.[2] The merger closed on April 1, 2011. Qwest began doing business as CenturyLink in August 2011.[3]

Qwest provided voice, Internet backbone data services, and digital television in some areas. It operated in three segments: Wireline Services, Wireless Services, and Other Services. The Wireline Services segment provided local voice, long-distance voice, and data and Internet (DSL) services to consumers, businesses, and wholesale customers, as well as access services to wholesale customers.

History

Founding

Founded in 1996 by Philip Anschutz, Qwest began in an unconventional way. Anschutz, who owned the Southern Pacific Transportation Company at the time, established the subsidiary Southern Pacific Telecommunications Company and began installing the first all-digital, fiber-optic infrastructure along his railroad lines and connecting them into central junctions in strategic locations to serve businesses with high-speed data and T1 services. In 1997, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company merged with Union Pacific, but the telecom assets were kept separate from the railroad merger with Union Pacific. The telecom company was renamed Qwest and became a publicly traded company in June 1997.[4]

Qwest Communications grew aggressively, acquiring internet service provider SuperNet in 1997, followed by the acquisition of LCI, a low cost long-distance carrier (located in Dublin, Ohio and McLean, Virginia) in 1998, and followed again by the acquisition of Icon CMT, a web hosting provider and European-based EUnet International Ltd., also in 1998.[5][6][7][8][9] This launched Qwest as not only a provider of high speed data to the niche market of corporate customers, but also a quick-growing residential and business long-distance customer base that it quickly merged into its data service.

US West acquisition

Qwest merged with "Baby Bell" US West on June 30, 2000 through an apparent hostile takeover for $48 billion.[10][11] [12] Philip Anschutz owned 17.5% of the resulting company. Unlike prior merger transactions between the Baby Bells, US West ceased to exist when it was immediately absorbed into Qwest with all subsidiaries of US West becoming directly owned by Qwest.

As a condition of the merger, Qwest was required to sell off its long-distance operations in the 14-state boundary in which it provided local telephone services. They were eventually sold to Touch America. In 2003, Qwest acquired Touch America from 360networks after Touch America filed for bankruptcy. The acquisition ended ongoing disputes between the two companies in which Touch America alleged Qwest continued to illegally sell long-distance services within the former US West region.[13]

Directory operations sale

In 2002, Qwest agreed to sell its directory operations, QwestDex, to private equity firms The Carlyle Group and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe for $7 billion. The sale allowed Qwest to generate cash to fend off a bankruptcy filing to which it may have had to resort due to significant amounts of debt it had incurred since the collapse of the dot-com bubble.[14] The resulting company was named Dex Media, when the sale was completed in 2004.

Alliances

Qwest Communications has partnered with other major communications companies during its history.

In Europe, Qwest partnered with the Dutch national telecom operator KPN to create the pan-European data communications and hosting company KPNQwest. KPNQwest was formed in November 1998 and went on to launch an initial public offering on the Nasdaq and Amsterdam stock Exchanges in November 1999. KPNQwest collapsed in bankruptcy in 2002.

In the US, Qwest partnered with AT&T and Verizon to form Movearoo.com.[15] Created on July 9, 2008, the website is a program designed to help customers in the process of moving find home service providers available in their area.[16]

Corporate structure

Qwest Communications International, Inc. was the holding company. It was the parent company of many more entities, but those listed below were the main operating units:

Qwest Corporation was an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), and since it was part of the AT&T Bell Operating System as Mountain Bell, it is also a Bell Operating Company. Qwest Corporation serves an in-region local market which consists of the 14 states in which the pre-merger US West provided local telephone service. Qwest Corporation also provides administrative and operation services such as financial, human resources, IT, and legal to the Qwest family of companies—the Qwest affiliates. It also owns El Paso County Telephone.
Qwest L D Corp. was a subsidiary providing long-distance calling services within the Qwest Corporation operating boundaries.
Qwest Communications Company, LLC was an affiliate of Qwest that currently provides long-distance telephone and long-haul data services. It was the classic pre-US West-merger entity founded in 1996. Qwest Communications Corporation changed its name and corporate status on January 2, 2009, to a limited liability company. Qwest Communications made an agreement with CSX in which it could use its rail lines as a right-of-way for a fiber-optic system. Qwest Communications International, the holding company, took the slogan Ride the Light as a result of this.

Defunct entities

Malheur Home Telephone Company: Commonly known as Malheur Bell, it was merged into its corporate parent Qwest Corporation on December 14, 2009.
Qwest Interprise America: Merged into Qwest Service Corporation in 2007 then moved to Qwest Communications Company, LLC.
Qwest Services Corporation: While still a legal entity, it previously supplied the administrative and operation services Qwest Corporation currently provides.
Qwest Cyber.Solutions: Operated as an application service provider (ASP) in the late 1990s and early 2000s (decade) hosting, managing and integrating complex software offerings such as SAP, Oracle and JD Edwards.

Qwest

History

Founding

US West acquisition

Directory operations sale

Alliances

Problems

Customer complaints and consumer issues

Accounting and insider trading irregularities

Refusal of NSA surveillance requests

Merger with CenturyLink

Corporate structure

Defunct entities

See also

External links

References