Monroe-based CenturyLink announced April 22, 2010 that it would acquire Qwest Communications, creating a national industry-leading communications company with nearly $20 billion in annual revenue.   As of December 31, 2009, CenturyLink and Qwest served local markets in 37 states with approximately 5 million broadband customers, 17 million access lines, 1,415,000 video subscribers and 850,000 wireless consumers.

CenturyLink was recently added to the list of Fortune 500 companies after a 2009 merger with EMBARQ, and this merger will surely take the new company even higher up that list.