CenturyTel, Embarq to be Renamed CenturyLink

When their merger completes sometime this summer, the union of CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL, news, filings) and eq will be known as ‘CenturyLink’.  All that stands between them and that glorious title is final FCC approval.  That approval isn’t really much of a hurdle of course, can anyone imagine the FCC saying no to this one after presiding over the reconstitution of AT&T?  Of course not.

So CenturyLink it is then.  Sigh, I guess I don’t really get it.  I mean, it’s not a bad name.  It’s not a made up fancy sounding made-up word like Verizon or Accenture or something, and they didn’t force the two together like Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU, news, filings)  (CenturyBarq … *shudder*).  But CenturyTel and Embarq were pretty decent names, why spend what has to be millions of dollars to re-brand the entire thing to a new one?  Maybe we could keep one of the old names and with the savings we might lay off a few less people.

So what does CenturyLink have that CenturyTel doesn’t?  They say it’s more forward-looking, which is PR-speak for not-backward-looking.  The ‘Tel’ suffix just sounds sounds too much like Telephone – and they can’t have the name of an old technology in their name, right?  Even if it is still their primary business, haha.  But they wanted it to fit their current ticker CTL, so they needed an L.  Hmm, CenturyLuck, CenturyLog, CenturyLlama, CenturyLink – yes that’s it!  CenturyLink.  Ok, well it was probably accompanied by a twenty pound feasibility report that took out 7 trees and cost a few million to produce, but still…

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Categories: ILECs, PTTs · Mergers and Acquisitions