SPRINT = a "meltdown," a "miserable performance" and a "disaster" -shares plunged 25.2 percent

Sprint shares plummet after job cuts

from BusinessWeek


NEW YORK

Shares of beleaguered Sprint Nextel Corp. took a nosedive Friday after
the nation's third-largest wireless carrier said it continued to lose
subscribers at an alarming rate during the fourth quarter and will lay
off thousands to cut costs.

A "meltdown," a "miserable performance" and "disaster" were some of
the words analysts used to describe Sprint's predicament Friday. The
company said it lost 683,000 postpaid subscribers during the quarter.
Wall Street had expected a loss of about 250,000 to subscribers,
according to Goldman Sachs analyst Jason Armstrong.

Sprint also announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs, close 8 percent of its
retail locations and reduce its use of contractors and outsourced
services. While investors have been expecting the company to outline a
cost-cutting plan since its new CEO took helm, Armstrong said in a
client note the cuts were already in the works under interim
management.

"Hence, we would warn that new CEO Dan Hesse has yet to take his cut
at the business," he wrote. "He has historically been aggressive on
cost cuts and conservative on guidance, so look for more reductions
when he finalizes his plan."

Hessem, who took over as Sprint's CEO in December, is the former chief
executive of Sprint spinoff Embarq, where he cut more than 1,200 jobs.
He replaced Gary Forsee, who was ousted in October following several
quarters of falling subscriber numbers and other operational troubles
for the company.

Sprint did not mention its WiMax service, Xohm, when announcing the
job cuts, and Cowen and Co. analyst Thomas Watts said the company "may
continue with a slow launch in select markets as planned, but may
reevaluate its strategy going forward." Sprint, he added, may scale
back WiMax spending as it focuses on improving its core wireless
business. The project has been viewed by some as too expensive and
years away from turning a profit.

Most analysts kept "Hold" ratings on Sprint's stock, noting that the
company is in the midst of a turnaround that may have to get worse
before it gets better. In the meantime, Sprint's subscriber defections
should benefit Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. -- though the shares of
both companies fell on Friday.

Sprint's shares plunged $2.91, or 25.2 percent, to $8.66 in afternoon
trading. The stock has lost nearly 35 percent of its value since the
start of the year. Earlier Friday, shares hit $8.15, their lowest
level since 2002.

Verizon's shares fell $1.91, or 4.7 percent, to $39. AT&T's shares
fell $1.29, or 3.5 percent, to $36.01.

On Jan 18, 6:38 pm, 4phun <vic.hea...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sprint shares plummet after job cuts
>
> from BusinessWeek
>
> NEW YORK
>
> Shares of beleaguered Sprint Nextel Corp. took a nosedive Friday after
> the nation's third-largest wireless carrier said it continued to lose
> subscribers at an alarming rate during the fourth quarter and will lay
> off thousands to cut costs.
>
> A "meltdown," a "miserable performance" and "disaster" were some of
> the words analysts used to describe Sprint's predicament Friday. The
> company said it lost 683,000 postpaid subscribers during the quarter.
> Wall Street had expected a loss of about 250,000 to subscribers,
> according to Goldman Sachs analyst Jason Armstrong.
>
> Sprint also announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs, close 8 percent of its
> retail locations and reduce its use of contractors and outsourced
> services. While investors have been expecting the company to outline a
> cost-cutting plan since its new CEO took helm, Armstrong said in a
> client note the cuts were already in the works under interim
> management.
>
> "Hence, we would warn that new CEO Dan Hesse has yet to take his cut
> at the business," he wrote. "He has historically been aggressive on
> cost cuts and conservative on guidance, so look for more reductions
> when he finalizes his plan."
>
> Hessem, who took over as Sprint's CEO in December, is the former chief
> executive of Sprint spinoff Embarq, where he cut more than 1,200 jobs.
> He replaced Gary Forsee, who was ousted in October following several
> quarters of falling subscriber numbers and other operational troubles
> for the company.
>
> Sprint did not mention its WiMax service, Xohm, when announcing the
> job cuts, and Cowen and Co. analyst Thomas Watts said the company "may
> continue with a slow launch in select markets as planned, but may
> reevaluate its strategy going forward." Sprint, he added, may scale
> back WiMax spending as it focuses on improving its core wireless
> business. The project has been viewed by some as too expensive and
> years away from turning a profit.
>
> Most analysts kept "Hold" ratings on Sprint's stock, noting that the
> company is in the midst of a turnaround that may have to get worse
> before it gets better. In the meantime, Sprint's subscriber defections
> should benefit Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. -- though the shares of
> both companies fell on Friday.
>
> Sprint's shares plunged $2.91, or 25.2 percent, to $8.66 in afternoon
> trading. The stock has lost nearly 35 percent of its value since the
> start of the year. Earlier Friday, shares hit $8.15, their lowest
> level since 2002.
>
> Verizon's shares fell $1.91, or 4.7 percent, to $39. AT&T's shares
> fell $1.29, or 3.5 percent, to $36.01.

HA HA HA, shoulda went with GSM...those Lucifer radio cards should be
good for some gold and silver scrap value....JG

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:46:08 -0800 (PST), jgrove24@hotmail.com wrote in
<6da5f0e5-6cf7-498b-aefc-a73189a886f7@d70g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>:

>On Jan 18, 6:38 pm, 4phun <vic.hea...@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Verizon's shares fell $1.91, or 4.7 percent, to $39. AT&T's shares
>> fell $1.29, or 3.5 percent, to $36.01.

>HA HA HA, shoulda went with GSM...those Lucifer radio cards should be
>good for some gold and silver scrap value....JG

Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline, and this will tend to accelerate
the process, leaving Verizon increasingly isolated on a shrinking CDMA
island, probably why Verizon shares dropped much more than AT&T shares.
The bet by AT&T on GSM and 3G looks has been paying off well, and
beating out Verizon for the iPhone has made it the strongest player in
the U.S. market.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR AT&T (CINGULAR) WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/AT&T_Wireless_FAQ>

On 2008-01-19, John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:46:08 -0800 (PST), jgrove24@hotmail.com wrote in
><6da5f0e5-6cf7-498b-aefc-a73189a886f7@d70g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>:
>
>>On Jan 18, 6:38 pm, 4phun <vic.hea...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> Verizon's shares fell $1.91, or 4.7 percent, to $39. AT&T's shares
>>> fell $1.29, or 3.5 percent, to $36.01.
>
>>HA HA HA, shoulda went with GSM...those Lucifer radio cards should be
>>good for some gold and silver scrap value....JG
>
> Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline, and this will tend to accelerate
> the process, leaving Verizon increasingly isolated on a shrinking CDMA
> island, probably why Verizon shares dropped much more than AT&T shares.

?? Over the past 52 weeks Verizon shares are up 5%, AT&T up 3% and Sprint
down 50%. The S&P is down 7%.

Sprint and Verizon don't look like the ones which are closely correlated
to me.

Dennis Ferguson

On Jan 18, 8:00 pm, John Navas <spamfilt...@navasgroup.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:46:08 -0800 (PST), jgrov...@hotmail.com wrote in
> <6da5f0e5-6cf7-498b-aefc-a73189a88...@d70g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>:
>
> >On Jan 18, 6:38 pm, 4phun <vic.hea...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Verizon's shares fell $1.91, or 4.7 percent, to $39. AT&T's shares
> >> fell $1.29, or 3.5 percent, to $36.01.
> >HA HA HA, shoulda went with GSM...those Lucifer radio cards should be
> >good for some gold and silver scrap value....JG
>
> Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline, and this will tend to accelerate
> the process, leaving Verizon increasingly isolated on a shrinking CDMA
> island, probably why Verizon shares dropped much more than AT&T shares.
> The bet by AT&T on GSM and 3G looks has been paying off well, and
> beating out Verizon for the iPhone has made it the strongest player in
> the U.S. market.
>
> --
> Best regards, FAQ FOR AT&T (CINGULAR) WIRELESS:
> John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/AT&T_Wireless_FAQ>

John in looking over the financial news related to this Sprint news I
saw one wit called CDMA the beta max of Wireless and another said
Sprint should consider switching to GSM. Apparently there is a
Canadian Telco considering rolling out GSM this year and abandoning
their CDMA network. The bottom line, the global standard is GSM.

John, I also saw an interesting news story from CNET VIDEO NEWS today
that mentioned the current tweaking by Google for the iPhone now had
the same Google search data on the iPhone which was using GSM EDGE
loading and displaying just as fast as a PC hooked up to broadband.
The iPhone is one powerful little instrument that has captured the
imagination of best minds in the industry!

On Jan 18, 7:14 pm, Dennis Ferguson <dcfergu...@pacbell.net> wrote:
> On 2008-01-19, John Navas <spamfilt...@navasgroup.com> wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:46:08 -0800 (PST), jgrov...@hotmail.com wrote in
> ><6da5f0e5-6cf7-498b-aefc-a73189a88...@d70g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>:
>
> >>On Jan 18, 6:38 pm, 4phun <vic.hea...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>> Verizon's shares fell $1.91, or 4.7 percent, to $39. AT&T's shares
> >>> fell $1.29, or 3.5 percent, to $36.01.
>
> >>HA HA HA, shoulda went with GSM...those Lucifer radio cards should be
> >>good for some gold and silver scrap value....JG
>
> > Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline, and this will tend to accelerate
> > the process, leaving Verizon increasingly isolated on a shrinking CDMA
> > island, probably why Verizon shares dropped much more than AT&T shares.
>
> ?? Over the past 52 weeks Verizon shares are up 5%, AT&T up 3% and Sprint
> down 50%. The S&P is down 7%.
>
> Sprint and Verizon don't look like the ones which are closely correlated
> to me.
>
> Dennis Ferguson

A down day for all:

Symbol Time Trade Change % Chg
S 4:00PM ET 8.70 Down 2.87 Down 24.81%
T 4:01PM ET 36.11 Down 1.19 Down 3.19%
VZ 4:00PM ET 39.09 Down 1.82 Down 4.45%

On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 01:14:10 GMT, Dennis Ferguson
<dcferguson@pacbell.net> wrote in
<slrnfp2jn1.4m.dcferguson@akit-ferguson.com>:

>On 2008-01-19, John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:46:08 -0800 (PST), jgrove24@hotmail.com wrote in
>><6da5f0e5-6cf7-498b-aefc-a73189a886f7@d70g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>:
>>
>>>On Jan 18, 6:38 pm, 4phun <vic.hea...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> Verizon's shares fell $1.91, or 4.7 percent, to $39. AT&T's shares
>>>> fell $1.29, or 3.5 percent, to $36.01.
>>
>>>HA HA HA, shoulda went with GSM...those Lucifer radio cards should be
>>>good for some gold and silver scrap value....JG
>>
>> Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline, and this will tend to accelerate
>> the process, leaving Verizon increasingly isolated on a shrinking CDMA
>> island, probably why Verizon shares dropped much more than AT&T shares.
>
>?? Over the past 52 weeks Verizon shares are up 5%, AT&T up 3% and Sprint
>down 50%. The S&P is down 7%.
>
>Sprint and Verizon don't look like the ones which are closely correlated
>to me.

I'm talking only about the drops today on the Sprint news. Analysts
believe the fall in AT&T and Verizon reflect a likely tough year in 2008
for cellular carriers. The greater fall in Verizon presumably means a
tougher outlook than for AT&T.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR AT&T (CINGULAR) WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/AT&T_Wireless_FAQ>

John, up to your old tricks again I see......

Let me give you a hint...... then do your homework.

N E X T E L

is where most of the problems are - (which isn't "CDMA")......




"John Navas" <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote in message
newsii2p3p5e7eg675nop6o6r5rnk66auvfrr@4ax.com...
>
> Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline, and this will tend to accelerate
> the process, leaving Verizon increasingly isolated on a shrinking CDMA
> island, probably why Verizon shares dropped much more than AT&T shares.
> The bet by AT&T on GSM and 3G looks has been paying off well, and
> beating out Verizon for the iPhone has made it the strongest player in
> the U.S. market.
>
> --
> Best regards, FAQ FOR AT&T (CINGULAR) WIRELESS:
> John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/AT&T_Wireless_FAQ>

Dennis Ferguson wrote:
> On 2008-01-19, John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:46:08 -0800 (PST), jgrove24@hotmail.com wrote in
>> <6da5f0e5-6cf7-498b-aefc-a73189a886f7@d70g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>:
>>
>>> On Jan 18, 6:38 pm, 4phun <vic.hea...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Verizon's shares fell $1.91, or 4.7 percent, to $39. AT&T's shares
>>>> fell $1.29, or 3.5 percent, to $36.01.
>>> HA HA HA, shoulda went with GSM...those Lucifer radio cards should be
>>> good for some gold and silver scrap value....JG
>> Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline, and this will tend to accelerate
>> the process, leaving Verizon increasingly isolated on a shrinking CDMA
>> island, probably why Verizon shares dropped much more than AT&T shares.
>
> ?? Over the past 52 weeks Verizon shares are up 5%, AT&T up 3% and Sprint
> down 50%. The S&P is down 7%.
>
> Sprint and Verizon don't look like the ones which are closely correlated
> to me.

Even with the Sprint subscriber losses, CDMA remains the dominant system
in North America, with well over 50% of subscribers. 2007 saw big
increases in CDMA penetration in the U.S.. CDMA is also gaining ground
in Asia, because carriers like the fact that you can have the same
coverage with 40% fewer cell sites, and the fact that CDMA has much
higher capacity per Mhz than GSM.

In Australia, a judge granted an emergency order delaying the CDMA shut
down because "Next G" could not provide the rural coverage of CDMA. Hey,
maybe someone can do that for AMPS in the U.S.!

Of course remember than for data, it's all CDMA, whether it's W-CDMA or
CDMA-2000. The future is indeed bright for CDMA!

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:05:25 -0800, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
wrote in <47916887$0$84203$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>:

>Of course remember than for data, it's all CDMA, whether it's W-CDMA or
>CDMA-2000. The future is indeed bright for CDMA!

Nope. CMDA-2000 and W-CDMA are totally different.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR AT&T (CINGULAR) WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/AT&T_Wireless_FAQ>

In article <47916887$0$84203$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>, SMS
<scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

> Of course remember than for data, it's all CDMA, whether it's W-CDMA or
> CDMA-2000. The future is indeed bright for CDMA!

I gather you have not heard of LTE the 4G upgrade.

--
Charles

["Followup-To:" header set to alt.cellular.verizon.]
On 2008-01-19, John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote:

> Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline

Were you ever a Sprint customer? I was, 2000-2005 for my wife's phone
and 2004-2005 for both phones. The biggest problem at Sprint wasn't the
network.



--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, CA PGP:0xE3AE35ED www.SteveSobol.com
Geek-for-hire. Details: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevesobol

On 2008-01-19, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
> Even with the Sprint subscriber losses, CDMA remains the dominant system
> in North America, with well over 50% of subscribers.

Unless my math is really screwed up that statistic is just wrong. Where
did it come from?

Dennis Ferguson

At 19 Jan 2008 01:00:33 +0000 John Navas wrote:

> Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline, and this will tend to accelerate
> the process, leaving Verizon increasingly isolated on a shrinking CDMA
> island, probably why Verizon shares dropped much more than AT&T shares.

But Sprint's problems have nothing to do with being CDMA. If CDMA is
"declining," it's because Sprint is hemmoraging customers- not the other
way around. If Sprint was GSM, GSM would've lost 650,000 customers instead.


> The bet by AT&T on GSM and 3G looks has been paying off well, and
> beating out Verizon for the iPhone has made it the strongest player in
> the U.S. market.


Which has nothing to do with GSM (or CDMA), either. Other than a few savvy
customers that travel internationally, I doubt 9 out of 10 cellular
customers know or care what technology their carrier uses.

John Navas wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:46:08 -0800 (PST), jgrove24@hotmail.com wrote in
> <6da5f0e5-6cf7-498b-aefc-a73189a886f7@d70g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>:
>
>> On Jan 18, 6:38 pm, 4phun <vic.hea...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> Verizon's shares fell $1.91, or 4.7 percent, to $39. AT&T's shares
>>> fell $1.29, or 3.5 percent, to $36.01.
>
>> HA HA HA, shoulda went with GSM...those Lucifer radio cards should be
>> good for some gold and silver scrap value....JG
>
> Yep. CDMA has been in serious decline, and this will tend to accelerate
> the process, leaving Verizon increasingly isolated on a shrinking CDMA
> island, probably why Verizon shares dropped much more than AT&T shares.
> The bet by AT&T on GSM and 3G looks has been paying off well, and
> beating out Verizon for the iPhone has made it the strongest player in
> the U.S. market.
>
From everything I read the screwup was to buy the toy Nextel
properties. Initially that boosted their subscriber numbers but then
when they started raising the prices and not building out the network
the former nextel customers started fleeing. The walkie talkie thing was
attractive for a while because it gave cheap calling for businesses. Now
that the other carriers have free calling within their networks it has
made the walkie talkie thing much less attractive.