[2] In the 1960s there was a split, culminating in Anaconda Co. resisting an MPC rate hike.
In 1959 MPC bought coal mining rights at Colstrip, Montana, with plans to develop coal-fired electrical generation plants there.
[2] With the arrival of utilities deregulation in the 1990s, Montana Power restructured itself into a telecommunications company by 2001, Touch America Holdings, and began divesting its utility and energy holdings.
The company built a 21,000-mile (34,000 km) fiber optics network and incurred heavy losses during the dot-com downturn in the early 2000s.
[1][3][4] Litigation over the company's assets continued until early 2013, when a settlement was reached offering shareholders 29 cents per share.