EarthLink-Windstream: Next Merger Up?

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in July-August 2016.**

Windstream Holdings Inc. and Earthlink Holdings Corp. might be headed for a merger deal with rumblings of advanced talks underway.

The joining of the two mature internet/network service providers would create a more formidable competitor in the marketplace. The transaction would result in Windstream owning more than half of the combined company, Reuters reported.

Windstream offers voice, data, network and cloud technology, as well as voice and unified communication (UC), network security and managed services. EarthLink, in addition to its residential and small-business customer base, also works with enterprise customers. {ad}

EarthLink has been busy transforming its business over he past few years from predominantly being a residential ISP in 2010, to a leading managed services provider in the business communications and IT services market in 2013 — according to a Frost and Sullivan report. More recently, the company dived into SD-WAN with a cloud-delivered network service called EarthLink SD-WAN Concierge. Earthlink’s SD-WAN offering is powered by VeloCloud.

The telecom company also offers managed network services, hybrid WAN, cloud connectivity, voice and UC, and security and compliance.

Friday’s news comes on the same day as the anticipated sale of CenturyLink’s data centers and collocation business to a consortium of partners – BC Partners, Medina Capital Advisors and Longview Asset Management – for $2.15 billion in cash and a minority stake valued at about $150 million.