Sprint Swings to a Loss

Sprint (S Quote) stumbled into another earnings miss Wednesday, as the telco lost 220,000 postpaid customers in the first quarter.

The Reston, Va., telco lost $211 million, or a nickel a share, for the quarter ended March 31, reversing the year-ago continuing operations profit of $419 million, or 14 cents a share. Revenue was flat at $10.1 billion.

Adjusted earnings before amortization fell to 18 cents a share from 26 cents a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for a 23-cent profit on sales of $10.3 billion.

"Our plans in 2007 call for a substantial increase in the funding of business operations to build long term growth and profitability," said CEO Gary Forsee. "We established a quick ramp on these investments in the first quarter to accelerate our progress. These increased commitments, along with notably higher device subsidies to drive acquisition and retention, impacted our profitability in the quarter." ...