Last October, the seventh largest ILEC (Centurytel) acquired the fourth largest (Embarq) in a deal estimated to be worth $11.6 billion. According to a Centurytel press release, regulators in Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska and Ohio have approved the deal, bringing it one step closer to completion. According to Embarq, the combined company will operate in 33 states, 18 of which don't require regulatory approval for the merger. The combined company will have 7.7 million access lines, 2 million broadband customers and more than 400,000 video subscribers.

Louisiana-based DSL provider CenturyTel was one of the first ISPs I'd heard was tinkering with NebuAD's behavioral advertising technology. As I explored in discussions with NebuAD's CEO, ISPs track and sell user browsing data to NebuAD, so that NebuAD can provide customers with more tailored ads.