News of a partnership with a top-of-class cloud computing enterprise helped propel Lumen Technologies (LUMN +0.65%) stock to an impressive gain this week. Over the five-day trading period, the storied tech and telecom company’s shares rose by more than 15%, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Connecting to the cloud
On Wednesday, Lumen announced that it had been tapped as the first network operator to partner with Amazon Web Services’ AWS Interconnect service. This is a so-called “last mile” connectivity business that provides high-speed cloud services to its clients. Lumen and AWS will leverage the former’s considerable last-mile and metro networks for this work.
Image source: Getty Images.
Lumen didn’t hesitate to point out that the network extends over 340,000 route miles. The number of businesses and data centers it connects is in the thousands, the company added.
As is customary in any sizable, tech-forward deal these days, Lumen noted that such services will be crucial to the build-out of artificial intelligence (AI) capability.
Lumen did not provide granular operational details of the AWS collaboration, nor did it discuss the financial particulars.
Today’s Change
(0.65%) $0.06
Current Price
$8.56
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$8.8B
Day’s Range
$8.43 – $8.84
52wk Range
$3.01 – $11.95
Volume
325K
Avg Vol
14M
Gross Margin
24.31%
In with the leader
In the press release trumpeting the deal, Lumen quoted CTO Jim Fowler as saying, “Cloud providers are increasingly integrating connectivity as a cloud service, and Lumen’s network enables that seamless experience.”
Although we’re a bit in the dark here, given the lack of financial details, this is unquestionably quite the feather in the cap for Lumen. AWS is the 300-pound gorilla of cloud computing, and Lumen is a critical part of an important new AWS initiative. And, most likely, it’ll get paid well for the job. This partnership is sure to be fruitful, and to a degree, it’s reason alone to be bullish on Lumen stock.
Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
