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By Anna Louie Sussman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Phone service provider CenturyLink Inc is seeking to acquire Rackspace Hosting Inc in order to expand its cloud-computing services, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the situation.
The deal would expand the Louisiana-based company's offerings of Internet and cloud services, enabling it to better compete against companies like Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Google Inc, the report said.
One person told Bloomberg the deal to acquire the $5.3 billion company might not be reached.
Companies have increasingly been moving their computing and storage operations to the cloud to avoid buying equipment and operating proprietary data centers.
Centurylink's competitors, ranging from telecommunications companies like Verizon to cable companies, offer cloud services to enterprise customers and have also been making acquisitions in the space.
(Reporting by Anna Louie Sussman; Editing by Peter Cooney)