DENVER—The retiring head of Qwest Communications said Thursday his successor should understand mergers and acquisitions, but he declined to speculate about the company’s future strategies in the consolidating telecommunications industry.
Chief Executive Officer Dick Notebaert told The Associated Press no deals were in the offing for the Denver-based company.
“Conversations go on all the time with all different types of companies in a broad spectrum of businesses, but if I had a transaction I was in the middle of, I wouldn’t leave,” he said in an interview.
He wouldn’t offer an opinion on the best path for Qwest. “There is a lot of private equity out there and there’s a lot of companies out there for sale, so I wouldn’t say,” he said.
Notebaert said his goal before leaving is to have the Qwest board name a qualified successor, someone with experience in retail and telecommunications as well as mergers and acquisitions.
The board has not set a timetable for naming a replacement, and Notebaert said he didn’t know how long it would take but hoped it would be “sooner rather than later.”
Qwest, which has a fiber-optics network and is the primary telephone service provider in 14 mostly Western states, has been mentioned by some industry observers as a possible target either to acquire assets or be acquired.
In a research note to clients after Notebaert’s announcement, Banc of America Securities analyst David W. Barden said some private equity firms may be interested.
“The company has announced that it is pursuing a CEO search and not an analysis of ‘all strategic options,’ but we believe Qwest will be a target of interest on the strategic front following this announcement and the board would obviously have a duty to hear all proposals,” he wrote.
Notebaert said he has been thinking of retirement for about two years and wanted to wait until Qwest was in good financial shape.
A former executive with Ameritech Corp. and Tellabs, Notebaert was appointed Qwest’s chief in 2002 after Joseph Nacchio resigned under pressure amid an accounting scandal that forced the company to restate at least $2.2 billion in revenue. Nacchio was convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading and is scheduled to be sentenced in late July.
Qwest posted its first operating profit last year since acquiring the former Baby Bell U S West Inc. in 2000. “I wasn’t going to leave until we were normal, until all the indicators were positive,” Notebaert said.
He plans to relocate to the Midwest or Chicago and spend time with his grandchildren.
Qwest’s stock closed up 10 cents at $9.57 a share Thursday after falling 8 percent to $9.36 a share Monday when the CEO announced retirement plans.
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