Citizens adopts Frontier name - Westfair Communications

Citizens Communications Co. is dumping its corporate name in favor of the Frontier moniker it already uses as the brand for telecommunications service it offers in New York and several other states.

The new Frontier Communications Corp. will retain its Stamford headquarters and Rochester, N.Y., operational base. On July 31, Citizens will change its “CZN” ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange to the “FTR” symbol, with CEO Maggie Wilderotter scheduled to ring the opening bell that day.

In its next-to-last quarter under the Citizens banner, the company had a $46 million profit on $569 million in revenue.

Ansonia Copper laying off 85

Since its founding in 1845, employees of Ansonia Copper & Brass have weathered depressions, wars and floods forging rods, wiring and tubing. In the end, it was superheated prices for energy, copper and other raw materials that forged pink slips for many.

Ansonia Copper & Brass is laying off 85 workers, its second such reduction in the past year, blaming rising costs for energy and raw materials. Copper has traded this spring at more than $8,000 a ton, quadruple its price of four years ago.

The cuts reduce the company”™s work force to less than 20 people at its Ansonia headquarters. A company facility in Waterbury that employs 60 people is not affected by the restructuring.

Ansonia Copper & Brass was acquired in 2002 by Raymond McGee. The company”™s customers include General Dynamics Corp.”™s Electric Boat submarine construction division in New London County.

Time Warner and its cable arm to part

Time Warner Inc. formally agreed to spin out its Stamford-based Time Warner Cable division as an independent company, with the transaction valued at nearly $11 billion.

Time Warner Cable has more than 220 employees in Stamford and more than 45,000 total.

The companies plan to complete the spin out in the fourth quarter through a one-time dividend distribution Time Warner indicated will be tax free. The deal is contingent on favorable reviews by the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Communications Commission and local Time Warner Cable franchises.