Level 3 - an international communications company based in Broomfield, Colorado - has built its name through operating long-distance network infrastructure. Now, with a $5.7 billion acquisition of TW Telecom, Level 3 is aiming to ramp up its ability to serve the end-to-end needs of enterprise customers. The Wall Street Journal describes this deal as combining Level 3's international internet backbone (180,000 miles of fiber optic cable bridging more than 60 countries) and TW Telecom's focus on U.S. metropolitan areas in order to better compete against massive corporations like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications - which together own nearly half of the fixed corporate communications market.

"We know our primary competitors are very large companies, whether they're incumbent telcos or cable companies," said Level 3's Jeff Storey on Monday's conference call with analysts. "We believe that this combination gives us the scale to effectively compete, although we're still much smaller, which gives us the ability to maintain the nimbleness that both companies are known for and will help us win in the marketplace."