Sprint said Monday that it will cut 2,000 jobs as the wireless company looks to trim costs, announcing the cuts as the company reported a wider-than-expected loss in its fiscal second quarter.
Sprint said it expects to save $400 million annually on total labor costs as a result of the layoff, applying it toward the $1.5 billion in total cost reductions it’s trying to eliminate.
Sprint posted a second quarter loss of $765 million (19 cents per share) on revenues of $8.5 billion. Wall Street was expecting a loss of 6 cents per share.
Sprint said the results came amid a “transitional quarter” following the appointment of Marcelo Claure as CEO in mid-August. Claire, on board to turn Sprint around, is the former CEO of Brightstar Corp., a wireless distributor and subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank, which has a controlling stake in Sprint.
“We have started a transformational journey,” Claure said, in a statement. “While the company continues to face headwinds, we have begun the first phase of our plan and are encouraged with the early results. Every day we are focused on improving our standing with consumers, improving our network and controlling our costs.”
Sprint disclosed last month that it would take a $160 million charge in its fiscal second quarter to cover costs for an ongoing workforce reduction that began on September 30. At the time, Sprint employed about 33,000 people.
Sprint said its 4G LTE network now covers 260 million people, while its 2.5 GHz LTE deployment, a an enhanced LTE effort called “Spark,” now covers 92 million people, and is on track to reach 100 million by the end of the year.
Sprint said it drove 590,000 net additions in the quarter, coming way of 35,000 prepaid net adds and 827,000 wholesale net adds (thanks to MVNO deals), offset by postpaid net losses of 272,000.
