Boston, MA 05/13/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Centurylink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL) is a $21 billion market capped company in the telecommunication services sector. It provides cloud services, and that puts it on competitive grounds against some of the well-known tech companies such as Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) among others.
While the company does not match the financial strength of its main competitors Google, Microsoft and Amazon, for instance, it is not shying away from giving them a run for their money in the race to win more customers and attract higher revenue from cloud services.
The company recently announced expansion of its cloud capacity and price adjustments that are intended to attract more customers and support revenue growth. Competitive pricing is gaining fame in the cloud service business, and players are slashing their rates by almost half to entice customers.
While price cuts can sometimes lead to financial strain, Centurylink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL) said its strategy is well-thought, and there is no fear of running into financial challenges under the current discounted cloud prices. In any case, the company believes its discounted rates will win it more customers against the competition.
Cloud capacity
As Centurylink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL) projects strong and long-term demand for its cloud solutions, the company can be seen expanding its capacity. According to Jonathan King, the company’s VP of cloud strategy, Centurylink managed to double its public cloud capacity in just 140 days, and it plans to do more this year. The company recently said it has 11 operating cloud centers and plans to bring the number to more than 15 this year. As such, it has earmarked additional cloud centers in Canada and U.K this quarter and another two cloud centers in the Asia-Pacific between the 3Q and 4Q quarters.
With enhanced cloud capacity, favorable prices and 100 percent uptime, Centurylink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL) expects to expand its market share and create bigger value for the shareholders.
Shareholder value
Centurylink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL) returned about $600 million in the last quarter alone to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends. Though the company is pursuing growth, it is balancing its investments with reward to shareholders. The company observes $0.54 per share in the quarterly dividend.
