Internet expansion makes sense for WIN

Article Excerpt

WINDSTREAM CORP. $13 (Nasdaq symbol WIN; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 483.7 million; Market cap: $6.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 7.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.windstream.com) will buy privately held Hosted Solutions LLC of Houston, Texas. This company hosts the web sites of over 600 businesses. The deal should close by the end of 2010. Windstream will pay $310 million for Hosted Solutions. To put that in perspective, Windstream earned $85.2 million, or $0.18 a share, in the latest quarter. However, the purchase will let Windstream sell its services to Hosted’s clients, and lower its reliance on traditional telephone operations. Windstream also expects the purchase to give it $52 million in tax breaks. Windstream is a hold. hold…