“Sprint shares fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday as investors worried about price competition hurting its margins and about a disappointing fourth quarter for prepaid services, on which Sprint depended for growth in 2009,” Carew reports. “In the quarter, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service lost 504,000 postpaid customers who pay monthly bills.”
Carew reports, “Revenue fell to $7.87 billion from $8.43 billion, and compared with the average forecast for $8.03 billion. Analysts also noted Sprint did not have any high-profile phone launch in the quarter.”
“Sprint’s loss narrowed to $980 million, or 34 cents per share, for the quarter, from $1.6 billion, or 57 cents per share,” Carew reports. “Before a hefty non-cash charge, the loss was 23 cents per share, compared with the average analyst expectation for a loss of 19 cents, according to Thomson Reuters.”
Full article here.
Miriam Marcus reports for Forbes, “Last month AT&T reported fourth-quarter earnings in line with Wall Street’s expectations and said it added 2.7 million wireless subscribers in the period, the second-highest quarterly net gain in the company’s history, thanks largely to its exclusive contract with Apple’s popular iPhone.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Davewrite” for the heads up.]
bahahaha, i cant wait to see them get bought out by verizon
So much for Pre’s pull in the December quarter…
“Last month AT&T;reported fourth-quarter earnings in line with Wall Street’s expectations and said it added 2.7 million wireless subscribers in the period, the second-highest quarterly net gain in the company’s history, thanks largely to its exclusive contract with Apple’s popular iPhone.”
Too bad Sprint can’t report the same with their partnership of that iPhone killer Palm Pre!
Both companies had their own “issues” before partnering. I guess two wrongs really doesn’t make a right!
Yea, that pre sure was the ticket! A ticket to nowhere!
“Sprinting” backwards! “Pre”dicted.
If Sprint was in a track event, they would be the first to cross the Starting line! The mighty Pre- Please!
Sprint? More like “Sprain-t” – ouch!
Maybe if they just lower their prices a little more, people will flock to them again. After all, CHEAP RULES, right?
Too bad Palm delivered such a poorly produced product in the Pre. I’m sure Sprint decided to run away from it as fast as it could once it saw the shipping product and the quality problems.
I used to know many employees of Sprint and companies which worked with it, and the common belief 6-7 years ago was that Sprint was positioning itself to be sold – trying to get good cashflow at the expense of long-term planning.
Sprint wasn’t interested in fighting off Verizon, Cingular (at the time) or the other bigger companies, it seemed to realize that as its long distance business shrank, it would shrink and would not recover.
Of course, when you don’t do anything to counteract that belief, it comes true.
Sprint has been circling the bowl for over a decade, the pre is only a minor turdlet in a maelstrom of stink.
But, but, multi-tasking…
Who cares about Wall Street expectations? Analysts are never right, they’re just jerking the market around for their own profit. I saw an amazing video from Jim Cramer 4 years ago in which he explained exactly how to manipulate the market, yet no one even questions it to this day. Capitalism is totally corrupt.
How can the Pre not have worked in unseating the iPhone. I mean according to R2 you can play Pandora while going PooPee on a Pre at the same time.
I still think Apple should team up with Google and buy Sprint for $9B and change. Then they should spin it off into a non-profit joint venture, so that the margins don’t hurt Apple and Google. Then they should offer low-cost dataplans for all Apple and Google devices. That will upset the marketplace.
It’s time Apple buy Sprint, cleans up the mess and creates a phone service for the iPhone & iPad,
Then they can tell AT&T;to get lost!
Besides, I would rather give Apple my monthly payment then to send it to AT&T;— at least, I would know that Apple was putting the money to good use!
I second that.
IF Apple decides they want to control the entire user experience (which they often seem to do), then they may want to consider buying Sprint. Don’t know if it’s a good financial move, but I’d gladly support Apple over other cellular providers.
And I currently have Sprint and love the service. Never any issues except for the fact that I can’t have an iPhone. Skeptical to go back to AT&T;because I never had good coverage when I was with them about 5 years ago.
Doesn’t Sprint have a more advanced network than Verizon, closer to AT&T;’s? Thought I remember reading that somewhere. Will Sprint be able to transition to 4G (LTE) quickly?
Apple buy Sprint? Along with Google?
My god, some of you people really are 14 year old pimply faced nerd boys not doing their homework aren’t you?
Apple won’t partner with Google on any purchase.
Apple COULD buy Sprint, Adobe and plenty of other companies but they probably won’t. Apple prefers to buy smaller companies for technology or talent and build it themselves.
After all, Apple didn’t bid on the spectrum auction earlier in 2009 so I doubt they want to become a teleco.
Having said that, the reason people get excited about the proposition is that they know Apple could do a better job than is currently being done.
@asymco:
ROTFLMAO!
Peace.
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Olmecmystic