CenturyLink is laying off about 1,000 workers companywide, officials for the Monroe, La.-based telecommunications company confirmed Friday.
The company declined to say how many of its more than 5,000 employees in Colorado would be affected.
“CenturyLink, as all businesses, continually evaluates its cost structure and business practices and adjusts its operations to meet the needs of the business,” Mark Molzen, a company spokesman, wrote in an e-mail to The Denver Post. “After careful consideration, CenturyLink has made the difficult decision to reduce its workforce. This includes current positions as well as not backfilling open positions.”
Molzen expects decisions will be made in upcoming weeks. The company will provide severance packages to affected workers, as well as outplacement assistance programs, he said.
As of May, the company said it employed nearly 5,850 people in Colorado, with 5,112 workers in the Denver area.
At the end of June, CenturyLink had 44,400 employees companywide, down from 45,500 at the end of the second quarter in 2014, according to regulatory filings made this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company sells Internet, phone and TV service to businesses and consumers in Colorado and 36 other states. It has a large base of employees here, including a facility in Littleton, because it acquired Denver’s Qwest for $24 billion in 2011.
In the past year, CenturyLink became the first provider of gigabit Internet in Denver. It also began offering Prism TV service here as an alternative to cable. Rival Comcast began offering gigabit Internet this summer.
When asked whether the layoffs would delay any rollouts of the new services, Molzen said: “We are committed to serving our customers. We have the right assets and strategy to succeed. We are continuing to build greater automation and efficiency into our platforms, which will lower our costs in the future and enable faster speed to market and product innovation.”
CenturyLink reported second-quarter earnings this week that fell below company forecasts and analyst expectations. CEO Glen F. Post III attributed the miss to wholesale revenues and higher employee and benefit costs.
The company completed a “sales force realignment” this year and planned to lower its capital investment and operating costs in the second half of 2015, Post said.
Also this year, Century Link reorganized its local leadership, replacing longtime Denver general manager Scott Russell.
“While we are disappointed with the financial results for this quarter, we are positioning Century Link to drive stronger sales, strategic revenue growth and improved operating cash flow in the months ahead,” Post said in the earnings report.
During the second quarter, CenturyLink made $143 million, or 26 cents per share, on operating revenue of $4.4 billion. Last year, the company reported a net income of $193 million, or 34 cents per share, on revenue of $4.5 billion.
Alicia Wallace: 303-954-1939, awallace@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ aliciawallace; Tamara Chuang: 303-954-1209, tchuang@denverpost.com or twitter.com/gadgetress
