CenturyTel Buys Qwest Communications to Cut Costs and Buy Time

question 79

Essay

CenturyTel Buys Qwest Communications to Cut Costs and Buy Time
as the Landline Market Shrinks

• Market segmentation can be used to identify “underserved” segments which may sustain firms whose competitive position in larger markets is weak.
• A firm’s competitive relative is best viewed in comparison to those firms competing in its served market rather than with industry leading firms.
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In what could best be described as a defensive acquisition, CenturyTel, the fifth largest local phone company in the United States, acquired Qwest Communications, the country’s third largest, in mid-2010 in a stock swap valued at $10.6 billion. While both firms are dwarfed in size by AT&T and Verizon, these second-tier telecommunications firms will control a larger share of the shrinking landline market.

The combined firms will have about 17 million phone lines serving customers in 37 states. This compares to AT&T and Verizon with about 46 and 32 million landline customers, respectively. The deal would enable the firms to reduce expenses in the wake of the annual 10 percent decline in landline usage as people switch from landlines to wireless and cable connections. Expected annual cost savings total $575 million; additional revenue could come from upgrading Qwest’s landlines to handle DSL Internet.

In 2010, about one-fourth of U.S. homes used only cell phones, and cable behemoth Comcast, with 7.6 million residential and business phone subscribers, ranked as the nation’s fourth largest landline provider. CenturyTel has no intention of moving into the wireless and cable markets, which are maturing rapidly and are highly competitive.

While neither Qwest nor CenturyTel owns wireless networks and therefore cannot offset the decline in landline customers as AT&T and Verizon are attempting to do, the combined firms are expected to thrive in rural areas where they have extensive coverage. In such geographic areas, broadband cable Internet access and fiber-optics data transmission line coverage are is limited. The lack of fast cable and fiber-optics transmission makes voice over Internet protocol (VOIP)—Internet phone service offered by cable companies and independent firms such as Vonage—unavailable. Consequently, customers are forced to use landlines if they want a home phone. Furthermore, customers in these areas must use landlines to gain access to the Internet through dial-up access or through a digital subscriber line (DSL).
-Describe the key factors both external and internal to the firm that you believe are driving this strategy.

Grasp the importance of understanding customer preferences in strategic decision-making.

Understand the relevance of cost, volume, and profit analysis in pricing and production decisions.

Discern the various pricing strategies, including cost-plus pricing and price skimming, and their applications.

Appreciate the significance of capacity considerations in product costing and bidding processes.

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