Sprint Nextel Corp.'s (S) first-quarter loss narrowed as average
revenue per contract user edged up, helping the wireless carrier
post a slight revenue increase.
Steep customer losses and costs from the shuttering of its older
Nextel network have widened Sprint's losses in recent quarters.
Last week, satellite-television provider Dish Network Corp.
(DISH) made a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint in an effort to derail
the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier's roughly $20.1 billion acquisition
by SoftBank Corp. (9984.TO) of Japan.
Sprint had also agreed late last year to buy the half of
Clearwire Corp. (CLWR) it doesn't already own in a $2.2 billion
deal, but Dish soon after made an informal offer that valued all of
Clearwire at about $4.85 billion. Dish has yet to move forward with
a formal bid for wireless-broadband provider Clearwire.
Sprint reported a loss of $643 million, or 21 cents a share,
compared with a loss of $863 million, or 29 cents a share, a year
earlier. Revenue edged up 0.6% to $8.79 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast a
per-share loss of 33 cents on revenue of $8.71 billion.
Operating margin swung to 0.3% from negative 2.9%.
The company lost 560,000 net contract subscribers in the first
quarter, compared with losses of 243,000 in the prior quarter and a
loss of 192,000 a year earlier. The Sprint brand added 12,000
contract customers while the Nextel platform lost 572,000 contract
subscribers. Sprint said the Nextel network is on track to be shut
down at the end of the second quarter.
The company ended the quarter with 55.2 million total customers,
down 1.6% from a year earlier.
The total contract customer turnover rate was 2.09%, compared
with 2.18% in the prior quarter and 2.01% a year ago. Average
revenue per contract user rose 4.3% to $62.47 from $59.88 a year
ago.
Sprint sold about 1.5 million iPhones during the quarter with
43% going to new customers.
Shares closed Tuesday at $7.10 and were inactive premarket. The
stock is up 25% since the beginning of the year.
Write to Melodie Warner at melodie.warner@dowjones.com
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