November 7th, 2008
Sprint Nextel lost 1.3 million customers last quarter
News just came over the Reuters wire that Sprint Nextel, the third-largest mobile service, posted a quarterly net loss of $326 million, or 11 cents a share, in contrast to a profit of $64 million, or 2 cents, in the quarter a year ago.
The suspected reason? Customers are fleeing to rival services. (AT&T Apple iPhone and T-Mobile G1, anyone?)
More figures:
- Excluding items, Sprint Nextel lost 12 cents a share, versus a profit of 7 cents in the quarter a year earlier.
- Revenue fell to $8.81 billion, from $10.04 billion a year ago. Analysts on average had expected revenue of $8.86 billion.
- The company said it lost 1.1 million postpaid customers, who pay monthly bills. The average expectation was for a loss of 1.0 million postpaid users, according to five analysts surveyed by Reuters. Their estimates ranged from losses of 950,000 to 1.1 million.
- Including postpaid and prepaid customers, who pay for calls in advance and do not commit to monthly contracts, Sprint lost 1.3 million customers in the quarter.
If you recall, Sprint said late last month that it had given up efforts to sell its iDen network, which has been hemorrhaging customers.
No matter how you slice it, it’s not looking good: Sprint shares have fallen around 60 percent in the last six months.
Related news, from the Wall Street Journal: Samsung Overtakes Motorola in the U.S.
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
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