Colorado's Top 100 public companies; Qwest merger likely to leave vacancy at No. 1.

• Position: PUBLIC COMPANIES - Company overview

Qwest Communications International is once again the slate's top-ranked public company based on 2009 revenues., but it could be for the last time. The Denver-based telecommunications carrier that was founded in 1996 by billionaire Phillip Anschutz announced in April it would be acquired by Louisiana-based CenturyTel in a $10.6 billion stock swap.

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The merger is subject to approval by shareholders, the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of justice and is expected to be completed by early 2011. Assuming the combined company is headquartered in Monroe, La., where CenturyTel is based, that would leave Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications, a fiberoptic network provider that ranks No. 8 among the state's public companies, as the largest Colorado-based telecom.

Another of note is Littleton-based TW Telecom, which provides last-mile connections into cities and buildings TW Telecom (TWTC) had revenues of $ 1.2 billion last year to rank No. 16 among Colorado-based public companies.

Among other notables in this year's Top 100, Englewood-based Echostar Corp., founded in 1996 by Charlie Ergen, spun off Dish Network in 2008, and the companies now operate independently and are listed separately in the Top 100 Public Companies ranking. Dish Network (DISH), a provider of satellite TV services, ranks No. 2 in this year's Top 100 with revenues of $11.7 billion last year. Echostar (SATS), a provider of satellite television equipment, ranks No. 11 with revenues of $1.9 billion last year.

TOP 100 COLORADO - BASED PUBLIC COMPANIES Ranked by revenue 2010 COMPANY TICKER '09 '09 SALES '08 SALES Rank Rank (000's) (000's) 1 Qwest Communications Q 1 $12,311,000 $13,475,000 International Inc. 2 Dish Network Corp. DISH 2 11,664,151 11,617,000 3 Liberty Global Inc. LBTYA 3 11,080,200 10,561,100 4 Liberty Media Corp. LCAPA 4 10,158,000 10,084,000 5 Newmont Mining Corp. NEM 7 7,705,000 6,199,000 6 Ball Corp. BLL 6 7,345,300 7,561,000 7 Western Union Co. WU 9 5,083,600 5,282,000 8 Level 3 LVLT 11 3,762,000 4,301,000 Communications Inc. 9 Molson Coors Brewing TAP 10 3,032,400 4,774,300 Co. 10 Emergency Medical EMS 12 2,569,685 2,409,864 Services Corp 11 Echostar Corp. SATS 13 1,903,559 2,150,520 12 Chipotle Mexican CMG 20 1,518,417 1,331,968 Grill Inc. 13 Woodward Governor WGOV 23 1,430,125 1,258,204 Co. 14 ProLogis PLD 8 1,223,082 5,655,000 15 TW Telecom Inc. TWTC 26 1,211,390 1,159,019 16 Apartment Investment AIV 17 1,195,763 1,457,918 & Management Co. 17 Teletech Holdings TTEC 18 1,167,915 1,400,147 Inc. 18 Ciber Inc. CBR 25 1,037,700 1,191,567 19 Cimarex Energy Co. XEC 14 1,009,794 1,970,347 20 Whiting Petroleum WLL 24 979,360 1,222,100 Corp. 21 Vail Resorts Inc. MTN 27 976,988 1,152,156 22 IHS Inc. IHS 30 967,300 844,030 23 DCP Midstream DPM 22 942,400 1,285,800 Partners LP 24 MDC Holdings Inc. MDC 16 898,303 1,458,108 25 St. Mary Land & SM 21 832,201 1,301,301 Exploration Co. 26 Janus Capital Group JNS 28 774,700 1,037,900 27 Forest Oil Corp. FST 15 768,455 1,647,163 28 MarkWest Energy MWE 19 738,283 1,338,490 Partners LP 29 Bill Barrett Corp. BBG 32 652,730 617,911 30 Crocs Inc. CROX 31 645,767 721,589 31 UDR Inc. UDR 33 617,173 590,598 32 Air Methods Corp. AIRM 36 510,605 498,802 33 CSG Systems CSGS 37 500,717 472,057 International Inc. 34 Westmoreland Coal WLB 35 443,368 509,696 Co. 35 Biofuel Energy Corp. BIOF 50 415,514 179,867 36 Einstein Noah BAGL 39 408,562 413,450 Retaurant Group 37...