Anschutz Cut Qwest Ties

Recent news of CenturyTel’s $22 billion deal to acquire Qwest Communications International shouldn’t have much impact on Qwest founder Philip Anschutz.

That’s because the billionaire owner of AEG sold nearly his entire stake in Qwest last fall, according to regulatory filings obtained by the Denver Business Journal. Anschutz had been Qwest’s largest shareholder for years.

Anschutz previously served on the Qwest board and held 213.5 million shares in the company. Anschutz Co. transferred 99 percent of those shares to Credit Suisse Capital Group between Sept. 21 and Nov. 19, the Business Journal said, and was paid $1.6 billion.
Despite the Credit Suisse sale, Anschutz may still hold a small stake in the company.

Another entity, Anschutz Family Investment Company, owned 17.2 million Qwest shares at the time of the regulatory filing, the paper reported.