Sprint starts to lay off workers as new cost-cutting plan begins

Posted: 23 Jan 2014, 21:40, by Alan F.

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Sprint starts to lay off workers as new cost-cutting plan begins

While its corporate parent is talking about borrowing billions of dollars to purchase T-Mobile, Sprint has started a cost-cutting plan by laying off some of its employees. Japan's SoftBank owns 78% of Sprint and is supposedly in 'direct' talks with Deutsche Telekom to buy the 67% stake in T-Mobile owned by the German telecommunications company.

According to regulatory filings, Sprint's managers are still trying to decide just how many employees will receive pink slips. The layoffs will continue through June and in the filing, Sprint said that it will take a charge of $165 million in the fourth quarter to cover severance payments. More charges could take place in future quarters.

Sprint currently has 39,000 workers, and based on the amount of the severance charge, and the possibility of more layoffs taking place until the summer, that figure could be sharply reduced by the time this year's third quarter begins in July.

source: AP

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posted on 23 Jan 2014, 22:48 7

1. PapaSmurf (Posts: 10457; Member since: 14 May 2012)

Sprint is a hot ass mess.

posted on 24 Jan 2014, 00:02 2

7. ScottSchneider (Posts: 336; Member since: 06 Dec 2011)

Actually that was funny... Congratulations.. You have been awarded the opportunity to look for a new job.... ~_~

posted on 24 Jan 2014, 07:58

13. ibap (Posts: 785; Member since: 09 Sep 2009)

I think your leg came off in Alan F.'s hand.

posted on 23 Jan 2014, 22:53

2. hurrycanger (Posts: 1625; Member since: 01 Dec 2013)

By the time they've purchased T-mobile, they wouldn't have any Sprint workers left.

posted on 23 Jan 2014, 23:15 5

3. Derekjeter (Posts: 1087; Member since: 27 Oct 2011)

I guess that huge deal with Apple is taking it's toll. Remember Dan Hesse words "if we had the iPhone we would be successful too" guess not. Sprint should just be sold in parts to the other carriers. What a joke.

posted on 24 Jan 2014, 06:04 2

10. QWIKSTRIKE (Posts: 1288; Member since: 09 Mar 2010)

Agreed, this deal was Hesse biggest gamble gone wrong. Everything else he did was fine. You can't fault him for Wimax if you understand the particulars about it. Light Squared was beyond his control. iPhone was a desperate move that cost him his legacy as an effective CEO.

Had he done due diligence he would have noticed that iPhone sales were declining. He over paid when he could have bargained for way less for a product in decline. The money he put into iPhone should have been used to build out Network Vision more vigorously.

posted on 24 Jan 2014, 06:41

11. Mxyzptlk (unregistered)

Without the iPhone, sprint would have been dead.

posted on 24 Jan 2014, 11:49 2

16. corporateJP (Posts: 2458; Member since: 28 Nov 2009)

Outside the United States, the iPhone is an oddity. In many countries, it is unfavorable. Sprint made a mistake following the volatile trends in the United States. It doesn't help their network is horrible either.

posted on 24 Jan 2014, 19:11

19. reckless562 (banned) (Posts: 1153; Member since: 09 Sep 2013)

yea. the sprint network could be alot better nationally

posted on 23 Jan 2014, 23:19 2

4. Sparhawk (Posts: 75; Member since: 10 Mar 2012)

"Sprint starts to lay off workers as new cost-cutting plan beings". So nice of Sprint to create so many "new cost-cutting plan beings" instead of letting them continue to be employees. So nice.

posted on 23 Jan 2014, 23:43 1

5. sniperdroid (Posts: 146; Member since: 23 May 2013)

*begins.

posted on 23 Jan 2014, 23:48 1

6. Kishin (Posts: 706; Member since: 30 May 2013)

They will lay off all thier workers then let T-mobile take control.

posted on 24 Jan 2014, 00:08 4

8. Mrmark (Posts: 303; Member since: 26 Jan 2013)

Fire sprint CEO and appoint T Mobile CEO over operations In the USA and watch the stocks rise .... Otherwise all is lost . .... BTW bring Nokia Windows phone to Sprint.

posted on 24 Jan 2014, 06:46 1

12. tigermcm (Posts: 860; Member since: 02 Sep 2009)

1 or 2 reasons I left Sprint, that and initially they didn't want WP

posted on 24 Jan 2014, 13:30 1

17. tokuzumi (Posts: 1211; Member since: 27 Aug 2009)

Poor Sprint. If they would just fix their network, and make it as good/better than Verizon/AT&T, price their plans cheaper than Verizon/AT&T, they wouldn't know what to do with all the cash. Hopefully, Softbank won't just drain Sprint of their resources, and spin them off with nothing, much like Daimler did with Chrysler.