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Qwest Communications reported its first-quarter financial results after losing the ongoing battle for MCI to Verizon.

Qwest had quite a first-quarter compared to last year's as far as earnings. The company earned $57 million, which is quite impressive considering that it lost $310 million in the same quarter in 2004.

Qwest's chairman and CEO, Richard C. Notebaert had this to say: "Qwest continues to realize positive results as key initiatives continue to stimulate new growth and improve profitability."

"We have strengthened our operating performance and improved our competitive position, while pursuing opportunities to drive future growth," he added.

Qwest's revenue took a 0.9% hit dropping to $3.45 billion from last year's $3.48 billion.

"Our ability to stabilize revenues, as well as our continued diligence on cost containment and optimization, has resulted in meaningful margin expansion. EBITDA margins increased to more than 28 percent compared with 25 percent a year ago," said Qwest's chief financial officer, Oren G. Shaffer. "We continue to improve our competitive position, performance and financial flexibility."

Verizon ended up getting MCI for $8.54 billion, although Qwest's final offer was $9.9 billion.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.