It wasn’t immediately clear how more than 1,000 employees of Windstream Holdings Inc. in downtown Greenville might be affected by the company’s proposed combination with another network services firm called Earthlink Holdings Corp.
Windstream, based in Little Rock, Ark., and Earthlink, based in Atlanta, announced a merger plan that involves the issuance of 93 million shares of stock and the refinancing of $436 million in Earthlink debt.
The companies said in a press release that they expect to realize more than $125 million in “annual operating and capital expense synergies” within 36 months of the deal’s closing, which is scheduled to occur in the first half of next year.
Windstream, which sells a variety of telecommunications services to businesses and individual consumers, came to Greenville with the 2010 purchase of the former Greenville-based Nuvox Inc.
The company is a major employer downtown, with more than 1,000 workers in the Landmark Building along North Main Street, according to Windstream spokesman David Avery.
On Nov. 7, the day the merger was announced, Avery said that the combining companies would use a joint integration process to evaluate staffing needs and identify duplicative functions.
“So it’s really too early at this point to comment on any specific changes that may take place as a part of this, but Greenville is an important center for us,” Avery said.
He said Windstream’s operations in Greenville include repair, service delivery, customer care, engineering, sales and information technology.
