Windstream Holdings, Inc. (WIN)

Windstream Holdings, Inc. provided telephone, broadband internet and network services to homes and businesses, mainly in rural areas and small towns across the United States. It also sold fiber transport, data networking and managed communications services to enterprises and wholesale customers. The company was based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Many of its local markets had few competing wireline providers, but it faced growing pressure from cable operators for broadband customers and lost traditional phone lines year after year.

Windstream was created in July 2006 when Alltel spun off its local telephone business and merged it with Valor Communications Group. The new company traded under the symbol WIN and later moved its listing to Nasdaq. It grew through acquisitions of other carriers, including PAETEC in 2011 and EarthLink in 2017. For years it was known for a large dividend, which it cut sharply and then eliminated as revenue declined, and the share price fell steadily through the 2010s.

In April 2015 Windstream spun off much of its copper and fiber network into a real estate investment trust, now known as Uniti Group, and leased the assets back. A hedge fund holding Windstream bonds argued that the arrangement breached the company's debt covenants. In February 2019 a federal judge in New York agreed and ruled that Windstream was in default, a decision that left the company facing roughly $5 billion of debt that could be accelerated.

Windstream filed for Chapter 11 protection in the Southern District of New York on February 25, 2019. Nasdaq notified the company the same day that its stock would be delisted, and trading on Nasdaq was suspended at the opening on March 6, 2019, when the shares moved to over-the-counter quotation under WINQ at well under one dollar. During the case Windstream reached a settlement with Uniti over the lease, which supported its reorganization plan.

The company emerged from bankruptcy in September 2020 as a privately held business owned mainly by its former first-lien creditors, led by Elliott Management. Holders of the old common stock received nothing under the plan. In May 2024 Uniti agreed to recombine with Windstream, and the merger closed on August 1, 2025. Windstream is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Uniti Group Inc., which trades on Nasdaq under the symbol UNIT.