Sprint plans to cut dozens of jobs in wholesale business
Sprint Nextel Corp., the third- largest U.S. wireless carrier, will eliminate dozens of employees in its wholesale division after losing customers.
The job cuts will number less than 100 at the 575-member group, said Kathleen Dunleavy, a spokeswoman at Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint. She declined to be more specific. Employees will be notified this week, and managers will decide when the workers will leave.
The wholesale group, which sells Sprint service for use by other companies, such as with Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle, lost 410,000 customers last quarter. Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse cut the size of Sprint's total workforce by 14 percent this year as part of a plan to save $1.2 billion annually.
Sprint rose 7 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $2.94 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has climbed 61 percent this year.
Sprint ranks behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. in U.S. mobile-phone customers.