Sprint cuts 2,000 jobs as its new CEO takes the reins
New CEOs frequently cut jobs to streamline their companies, and Sprint leader Marcelo Claure is proving to be no exception to the rule. The exec is cutting 2,000 jobs as part of "bold actions" he believes are needed to return the carrier to health. It's not hard to see why the layoffs are coming, unfortunately. Sprint is reporting an operating loss of $192 million during its fiscal second quarter (July through September), and it lost 272,000 of its bread-and-butter postpaid subscribers during the period -- not good when a rival like T-Mobile added 2.3 million.
Still, there is is a silver lining here. If you count prepaid and wholesale, Sprint gained 590,000 customers. It also notes that its postpaid cellphone losses slowed by about 60 percent in September, helped in part by the network's "most successful" iPhone launch ever. This suggests that the telecom may already be turning a corner, and Sprint suggests as much when it hopes to gain postpaid phone users in the fall. However, the real test of Claure's worth may take longer than that -- it could be a while before we know whether or not Claure's aggressive pricing and cost-cutting are enough to lure people back to Big Yellow.
[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
