CenturyLink

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• Website: www.centurylink.com

CenturyLink is a technology company delivering edge computing, hybrid-cloud connectivity, adaptive networking and network-embedded security solutions to customers around the world. William Clarke and Marie Williams purchased the Oak Ridge Telephone Company for $500 from F.E. Hogan, Sr in 1930. 16 years later, when Clarke McRae Williams married Mary Kathryn Lee, his parents gave the company to the couple as a wedding gift. With incorporated as Central Telephone and Electronics, he had expanded the business into three states serving 10,000 access lines. In 1971, the company was renamed Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc. One year later, Century bought the La Crosse (Wisconsin) Telephone Corporation, making a name for itself overnight within the industry. Shares of Century common stock started to trade on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time on October 24 1978, under the symbol CTL.

In 1990s, Century acquired Central Telephone Company of Ohio, a Centel subsidiary serving more than 65,000 access lines, and Delta Security Alarm Co., Inc., of Monroe, Louisiana, providing full-service security systems to a customer base of nearly 4,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in north central Louisiana, southern Arkansas and northwestern Mississippi. In addition to these acquisitions, Century completed its largest acquisition to date with the $2.2 billion purchase of Pacific Telecom, Inc. (PTI), gaining about 660,000 telephone access lines in 12 states and doubling its size. The company continued to expand with the acquisiton of Louisiana-based Century Protection Systems, providing full-service security systems to residential, commercial and industrial customers in northeastern Louisiana.

In 2000s the company also expanded its operations thanks to the acquisitions. The acquisitions essentially in 2000s were about disaster recovery options, security services, SAP. Now, Century Link offers networking, security, hybrid cloud and IT solutions, voice ans unified communications, managed services and IT consulting solutions.