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Beleaguered Sprint misses revenue expectations; sheds 504,000 postpaid customers; shares plummet

Apple Online Store “Sprint Nextel Corp’s fourth-quarter revenue fell 7 percent and missed Wall Street expectations as the No. 3 U.S. mobile service charged consumers less for phone calls to help curb subscriber losses,” Sinead Carew reports for Reuters.

“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.]

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