Qwest

Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. On April 22, 2010, CenturyLink announced it would acquire Qwest in a stock transaction. The merger closed on April 1, 2011. Qwest began doing business as CenturyLink in August 2011. Between 1999 and 2002, Qwest became involved in a major accounting scandal. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that the company fraudulently recognized more than $3.8 billion in revenue, excluded $231 million in expenses and made false statements that substantially inflated its share price. The SEC alleged that the inflated stock enabled Qwest to complete its acquisition of US West. Qwest subsequently paid a $250 million SEC penalty, while former chief executive Joseph Nacchio was convicted of 19 counts of insider trading. Qwest provided voice, Internet backbone data services, and digital television in some areas. It operated in three segments: Wireline Services, Wireless Services, and Other Services. The Wireline Services segment provided local voice, long-distance voice, and data and Internet (DSL) services to consumers, businesses, and wholesale customers, as well as access services to wholesale customers. The Wireless Services segment was achieved by a partnership with Verizon Wireless. Qwest also partnered with DirecTV to provide digital television service to its customers. In Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Omaha, Qwest offered Qwest Choice TV (later also known as Qwest Digital Television), an IPTV service over DSL. This service was retired in October 2008 (after being no longer available to new customers in May 2008), leaving DirecTV as the only TV service Qwest provided. Qwest Choice TV customers were moved to DirecTV. The Other Services segment primarily involved...