Sprint Nextel plans to put a new focus on retaining its customers after seeing subscribers leave and profits fall during the third quarter, its acting CEO said Thursday.
During the quarter, the Reston-based company earned $64 million, compared with $647 million during the same period last year. Sprint did $10 billion in sales, down from $10.5 billion duringthe third quarter of 2006.
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Sprint had announced it lost 337,000 of its more valuable monthly subscribers.
Though new subscribers offset some of the losses, Sprint still ended the quarter with 60,000 fewer subscribers overall. The company has been dealing with subscriber losses for many quarters now, which led to the ousting of CEO Gary Parsons in October.
Acting CEO Paul Saleh, who noted the company’s search for a new executive is ongoing, said the company’s emphasis will be on keeping its current customers, and it will begin offering incentives for them and targeting advertising in their direction.
“We see our turnaround coming with two simple goals; improving the customer experience, and simplifying the business with a particular emphasis on retaining our current customers,” Saleh said during a conference call with investors Thursday.
Some investors spoke favorably of the new strategy. There was also buzz around the idea the company might pursue an alliance with Google.
Published reports have indicated Sprint is in talks with the company to get Google applications on its cell phones, though executives did not confirm this during the call.
“We look for an appointment of a new CEO and the potential of a Google alliance to provide near-term support,” said analyst Tom Watts of New York-based Cowen & Co. in a report to investors Thursday.
Saleh, however, said Sprint will not make any predictions about 2008 results until the early part of next year.
The company is still on track to unveil its Xohm WiMax broadband network in the D.C. area by the end of the year, but the company is slightly behind in obtaining the network equipment needed for the launch, Saleh said.
