Number three US phone company Qwest was using the right bait in the wrong season on its recent fishing expedition. It finally acknowledged the poorly kept secret that its long-distance operations were for sale by saying it made more sense to keep them. Price rumours in the $2bn-$3bn range were likely too optimistic.

Potential suitors such as Verizon or AT&T had reasons to mull a deal while smaller ones such as Level 3 would have strained to digest such a big operation. The appeal of buying another shrinking long-distance business is that all three could have extracted economies of scale and boosted cash flows. Had Qwest put out a “for sale” sign before the credit crunch, the magic of purchasing predictable revenues with cheap leverage would have made their job easier, as would a regulatory environment more tolerant of market concentration.