CenturyTel completes Embarq merger

• Advocate business staff
• Published: Jul 2, 2009

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The successfully completed merger of Monroe-based CenturyTel Inc. and Embarq Corp. creates a Fortune 500 company with more than 2.1 million broadband customers, more than 440,000 video subscribers and 7.5 million access lines in 33 states, company officials said.

The combined company will be called CenturyLink and would have had revenue of more than $8 billion in 2008. The combined firm also expects to continue its annual dividend of $2.80 per share and expects to cut costs by $400 million by 2011, largely through a shared billing system and lower data transmission costs.