MCI Corp on Tuesday said it returned to profitability in the second quarter as cost cuts outweighed a 10 percent reduction in revenue. MCI, which has agreed to be bought by Verizon Communications Inc for $8.6 billion, earned $64 million, or 19 cents per share, compared with a loss of $71 million, or 22 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenues totalled $4.68 billion.
Analysts on average had expected MCI to earn 8 cents a share on revenues of $4.64 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
MCI, the second-largest US provider of business telecommunications services, has suffered from a bruising price battle since it emerged from the WorldCom bankruptcy last year. Its revenues have also declined as the company reduced its efforts to win residential long-distance customers.
Operating expenses fell 11 percent to $4.6 billion, as the company cut 16,600 jobs last year and wrote down the value of its assets, cutting depreciation costs.

Copyright Reuters, 2005

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