Sprint Nextel names local spinoff Embarq

[ComicalMoodyDan]

Sprint Nextel names local spinoff Embarq
Wednesday February 1, 7:06 pm ET

There's a new corporate giant in town: Embarq Corp.

That's the name Sprint Nextel Corp.'s local phone division will take when it spins off later this year, the company said after the market closed on Wednesday. The spinoff's new logo, with the company's name in capital letters, is set beneath a green logo meant to represent a jet. The logo can be seen on the spinoff's Web site.

Dan Hesse, the spinoff's CEO, said in a written statement that the name and logo "are meant to signal the way we will do business and establish what a next-generation local communications company can be."

"This is a company that will be aggressive and innovative in the marketplace, and the new name and logo -- with its distinctive and differentiating coloration -- is the brand we want customers to remember," Hesse said.

The logo and name were unveiled to the company's employees Wednesday afternoon.

"There was a standing ovation," said Paul Parkin, a principal at San Francisco-based Salt Branding, the firm that came up with the name. "There was raucous applause. I think it will become a rallying cry." Spinoff executives worked with Salt for 10 months to come up with the name, discarding thousands of choices in the process.

Dan Alcazar, Embarq's vice president of brand management, said Hesse ultimately chose Embarq after he was presented with two finalists.

One branding expert applauded the spinoff for taking a risk in discarding elements of the Sprint Corp. name and logo.

"Good for them," said Mollie Young, a principal at Minneapolis-based Nametag International Inc. "What's the point of being safe? They have to set themselves apart from the parent."

Alcazar said there was a healthy internal discussion about how much the new identity should borrow from Sprint's.

"At the end of the day, they'll be a competitor," he said. "We wanted the break to be clean so we can move forward."

Embarq will have about 20,000 employees, including 5,000 in the Kansas City area. That will make it one the area's 10 largest employers in the area, even larger than Hallmark Cards Inc., which ranks No. 9 on the Kansas City Business Journal's list of area employers, with about 4,500 employees.

With 7.5 million phone lines in 18 states, Embarq will be largest non-Bell local phone company in the country.

The company's revenue is expected to be about $6 billion in 2005, making it one the country's 350 largest publicly traded companies by revenue. That also would make it the second-largest public company based in the Kansas City area by revenue, behind YRC Worldwide Inc.

Sprint Corp. decided to spin off its local phone operations in December 2004, when it announced its merger with Nextel Communications Inc. The spinoff allows Sprint Nextel to focus on its core wireless business.

Once launched, Embarq will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "EQ."

http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060201/1222970.html?.v=5

[pbw]

Originally Posted by TNDan21 Sprint Nextel names local spinoff Embarq Wednesday February 1, 7:06 pm ET There's a new corporate giant in town: Embarq Corp. Once launched, Embarq will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "EQ." http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060201/1222970.html?.v=5

You have got to be kidding? Another, meaningless and retarded market driven name? What was wrong with Central Telephone or United Telephone? So now all of the Sprint signs have to come down off of the buildings and a really brain dead patch job done with whatever the "Embarq" logo will look like.

Man has this been a bad decade for old school telecom. First the Bell Atlantic and GTE brands now Sprint Local. Not to mention the bastardization done by Qwest and SBC.

How long will the company stay on the NYSE? Other than Las Vegas, Charlottesville, VA and Rocky Mount NC Sprint operates in some of the most rural and profit tight areas. I see a Hawaii TelCom (can't call it Hawaiian Telephone) thing happening with Lucedia or Carlyle.

I liked this line from the article:

"Sprint Nextel ranks No. 1 on the Kansas City Business Journal's list of area public companies"

Duh. What became Sprint was founded in KC over a hundered years ago as Brown Telephone. Okay, rant done. Time to take the camera out and get some of those offices before the signs change.

[ComicalMoodyDan]

The logo for Embarq is below.

[WirelessBeachBum]

Originally Posted by TNDan21 The logo for Embarq is below.

Looks like a paper airplane...

[agentHibby]

Look at the VZW spinoff Valor Telecom

They are going to buyout Alltel wireline and 5 starwireless. Nothing big but they could grow that way.

[inquirer22]

Originally Posted by pbw I liked this line from the article: "Sprint Nextel ranks No. 1 on the Kansas City Business Journal's list of area public companies" Duh. What became Sprint was founded in KC over a hundered years ago as Brown Telephone. Okay, rant done.

Actually, your facts aren't completely correct. Brown Telephone was founded in 1899 in Abilene, Kansas. (Abilene is 155 miles from Overland Park, KS [surburb of KC where the former Sprint World Headquarters are located]. NOTE: Abilene is also the home town of deceased president, Dwight D. Eisenhower.)

Historically, the company was headquartered in Abilene for 67 years. Then in 1966 the company moved its headquarters to the Kansas City area. Thus it has only been based in this area for 40 years. The soon-to-be-new local company, Embarq, will continue to be based from here, whereas Sprint/Nextel is officially headquartered in Reston, VA. Though the headquarters for Sprint/Nextel are in Reston, the operating headquarters is still in the KC area.