Sprint posts Q1 loss of over $500 million

Posted May 17, 2008 at 08:24 AM by Sue Walsh

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile

Sprint posted a 1st quarter loss of over $500 million, prompting the company to announce they may seek changes to its credit agreements.  The company expects to have enough cash to cover it’s operations and debt repayments through the end of 2009 but may ask its creditors for waivers or amendments.

“This is a nightmare game of whack-a-mole where new problems keep popping up faster than you can address,“ said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett. “The fact they’re now talking openly about their available liquidity makes it clear this is not a short-term turn around.“

Sprint reports a net debt of nearly $20 billion, much of it coming from its 2005 merger with Nextel, which many consider a failure. Standard & Poor dropped Sprint’s credit status to junk earlier this month. Rumored to be an acquisition target of Deutsche Telekom AG, the third ranked cellular provider promised to update shareholders in August. As a long time Sprint customer who has been very happy with the service, I can only hope for the best and wonder where Sprint would be today if they hadn’t made the mistake of merging with Nextel.

Read [Reuters]