WilTel Communications
WilTel Communications (formerly known as Williams Communications, which was formerly part of The Williams Companies, Inc) is a telco and Tier 2 Internet Service Provider with its own MPLS-enabled OC-192 optical wave division multiplexing backbone network. Its other products and services include IP VPNs, Private Line services (protected and unprotected), colocation, Ethernet-based wide area networking, ATM and Frame Relay network services. The company was acquired by Level 3 Communications in December 2005 for roughly $800 million in cash and stock. This is Wiltel 2.0 not the original that was bought by Worldcom.
WilTel also provides broadcast video distribution services including High Definition television distribution.
WilTel Communications also offers a wide range of professional services.
Leucadia, the previous owner of WilTel Communications, sold all of its shares of Level 3 (acquired as part of the sale of WilTel Communications) on March 22, 2006 at $3.44 per share, for a pre-tax gain of approximately $37.4M. On March 29, 2006, Level 3 shares reached $5.60 per share, leaving roughly $100M on the table for Leucadia had they waited 7 days to sell.