Sprint Nextel announced lower first-quarter profits because merger costs outweighed mobile-phone service sales. The company reported earnings of $419 million, or 14 cents per share, compared with $472 million, or 31 cents per share, during the previous year. Not including amortization and special one-time items, the company said it earned 35 cents per share, missing Wall Street predictions of 37 cents per share. Net adds were robust with the operator adding 1.3 million customers, including 563,000 postpaid, 502,000 through its Boost Mobile prepaid and 273,000 through wholesale and affiliate partners. During the period, the company's churn rate stayed level at 2.1 percent while average revenue per user dipped to $62. Sprint Nextel said affiliate acquisitions caused the decline.
To read more about Sprint Nextel's Q1 results:
- check out this article from AP