[otterlicious]

Acquired isn't defunct. The archaically named entity that owns your local telco cabinet almost certainly still exists:

http://www.centurylink.com/static/PDF/AboutUs/DoingBusiness/...

[octoberfranklin]

It really is defunct. The corporation "US West" is no longer registered.

Acquirors don't keep their acquisitions' corpses registered forever.

[otterley]

All of US West’s assets were acquired as part of the merger transaction.

In this case, there’s no evidence of a similar acquisition.

[octoberfranklin]

No evidence that you're aware of.

Because they're not a publicly-traded company like US West.

This is unsurprising.

[otterley]

It doesn't matter whether I, personally, am aware of this. It matters whether the organizations with whom the acquired entity did business are aware of it. It's the responsibility of the acquiring entity to keep those parties informed. And since some of these parties publish public information, it seems logical that we would be able to determine such acquisitions by looking at their public records.