ATLANTIC-ACM, a provider of strategic research and consulting services serving the telecommunications and information industries, recently stated that Windstream’s (News - Alert) acquisition of PAETEC will solidify the combined entity’s market position as the fourth in the U.S. business telecom services market.

Aaron Blazar, Vice President of leading telecommunications industry research firm ATLANTIC-ACM, said, "If completed, Windstream’s acquisition of PAETEC (News - Alert) will solidify its market share position as the fourth largest business telecom services provider in the United States, behind AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink.”

Blazar further stated, “The combined company will have a 4.2 percent share of the $65.8 billion U.S. business telecommunications services market, according to ATLANTIC-ACM market sizing and share projections for 2011.”

Windstream, a provider of broadband and communications, agreed to purchase communications conglomerate PAETEC for $2.3 billion in order to add scale and drive growth.

The combination creates a formidable national telecommunications provider with more than $6 billion in total revenue, according to company officials. The acquisition also accelerates revenue and free cash flow growth profile with approximately 70 percent of revenues from business and broadband services.

PAETEC not only provides broadband and IP communications services, but also has data center services. The company is also a large telecom reseller/interconnect, provider of telecom expense management (TEM) solutions and more.

The combination creates nationwide network with approximately 100,000 fiber route mile, while enhancing capabilities in key strategic growth areas including metro fiber, Ethernet, data centers and managed services.