CenturyLink’s acquisition of Level 3 Communications has received the green signal from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The former had decided to purchase the latter through the deal worth USD 24 billion and required the antitrust approval of the FCC. The strategic move will help CenturyLink to expand its service line across the communications market and gain a competitive edge over its rivals such as AT&T and Verizon Communications Incorporation. Key officials of CenturyLink have stated that the firm has received all the necessary approvals related to the acquisition and will close the deal on 1st November 2017.Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department had also approved the transaction subject to fulfillment of the conditions such as divestitures. Apparently, the FCC has laid down similar conditions while approving the acquisition deal in its antitrust approval order, which stresses that the agency will impose merger conditions that are narrowly tailored to remedy transaction-specific harms. According to reliable sources, this is a first of its kind of telecom acquisition agreement, which has received a nod of approval under the regime of the new U.S. government.
In addition to the approval of the acquisition deal between CenturyLink and Level 3 Communications, the Federal Communications Commission based in the U.S. has drafted a new rule through which it will review future mergers & acquisitions. This is a marked shift in the FCC policy that can ease the approval of mergers & acquisition agreements taking place across telecommunications & media sectors, cite experts.
Recently, it has been reported that the FCC is considering an approval grant for the proposed acquisition deal worth USD 3.9 billion taking place between The Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media Company. Authentic sources have quoted that the FCC has apparently undertaken several regulatory actions to boost Sinclair.