Sprint Shows Weak 4Q

[Shizuka]

News@2direct Archive
Sprint Shows Weak 4Q
By Robb Murray
News@2 Direct -- 2/22/2006 10:46:00 AM

Sprint Nextel didn't exactly rush out of the gates during its first quarter as a merged company, as the company reported a 55-percent net income dip for the fourth quarter of 2005.

The nation's third largest wireless carrier posted fourth-quarter profits of $197 million, dramatically down from last year's $437 million. Adjusted earnings, after removing the effects of amortization and special items, were 33 cents per share. The company says rising expenses are partly to blame.

Sprint Nextel shares fell 36 cents to $24.57 in premarket trading. By mid-day, they were at $24.38.

The news was better for the whole of 2005, which saw Sprint's profits hit $1.79 billion, up from the previous year's loss of $1.01 billion. Revenue rose 26 percent, to $34.68 billion, from the previous year. But the carrier also predicted 2006 revenues will come in around $41 billion, which is short of analyst expectations of nearly $47 billion.

[larry]

I don't think this was unexpected. It's hard to have a great quarter when you're coming off a merger of this magnitude. Look at what happened when AT&T and Cingular merged. They didn't put up great numbers either. One thing to note about Sprint is that their churn rate actually held steady or even decreased a bit when compared to previous quarters.

[Tauro72]

So, with the lastest additions of users to Sprint,, How many users are there now total?


Is your Wireless Provider the best? ** POLL **

VS

[jrip]

[quote=Tauro72]So, with the lastest additions of users to Sprint,, How many users are there now total?


Total for 2005 was 47.6 milion.

[larry]

[quote=jrip]

Originally Posted by Tauro72

So, with the lastest additions of users to Sprint,, How many users are there now total?


Total for 2005 was 47.6 milion.

It's kind of a mess to figure out since two affiliates were recently bought out and those customers can now also be included in the total.