 the company acquired "Baby Bell" U.S. West in a hostile takeover. The $58 billion acquisition marked a major steppingstone for Qwest. Not only did U.S. West provide local 120 VAULT LIBRARY CAREER 2005 Vault Inc. Vault Guide to the Top Telecom Employers Qwest Communications International, Inc. service to about 25 million customers in 14 states, but the acquired company employed more than 61,000 workers and brought in over $12 billion a year in revenue. While the acquisition cemented the Qwest's status as an industry leader, the company also had to take steps to correct U.S. West's reputation as "U.S. Worst." One action the company took was to announce layoffs of over 11,000 U.S. West employees, to be completed by the end of 2001. Qwest announced that the layoffs were part of a plan to "refocus" the local phone service provider as a provider of broadband, wireless, high speed Internet and bundled services. Networking the world In November 1998, Qwest started a joint venture with Dutch company Royal KPN to build and operate a high-capacity, 9,100-mile fiber optic Internet Protocol-based network in Europe. The network connects Europe to North America, and allows users on both continents to share and use each other's data, video and voice services. In March 2002, the company partnered with Japan Telecom to bring its services to multinational and regional businesses in Japan. Mission to Mars Qwest applied its reach and technology to the emerging field of online education. Students in Oregon, Arizona and Washington were able to view actual images of Mars via Qwest computer technology in February and March 2002. The program, titled "Live From Mars 2002," used a high-speed Internet connection to Qwest's 190,000-mile network to allow the students to ask scientists questions and explore new images from the surface of Mars via videoconference. Troubles in telecom In yet another episode of the accounting-practices debacle that for a time weakened U.S. stocks, Qwest became a target of the government's scrutiny in March 2002 r