The Denver skyline could forever change after Louisiana-based CenturyLink finalizes a deal to buy Qwest and once the naming rights to the building at 1801 California St. expire in June 2012. The neon-blue Qwest logos that glow over downtown may be replaced with CenturyLink’s, and many Qwest employees in the region are still waiting for word on whether they’ll have jobs after the merger is complete (Denver Post).

CenturyLink employs about 1,400 at its headquarters in Monroe, Louisiana, where HQ will remain, with Glen Post acting as CEO. The company plans to add at least 350 employees in Monroe in the coming three years, according to an agreement with the state of Louisiana (Monroe News-Star). For eight decades CenturyLink, which started out with 75 customers during the Great Depression, has grown into a giant firm (Denver Business Journal). Yet its absorption of Qwest, once a seemingly unstoppable monolith, is a bit like the little fish swallowing the big one, the Post writes, after dispatching a reporter to tiny Monroe, a place that “doesn’t exactly exude the image of a corporate titan.”