Sprint has not been having exactly the best year in 2015 and it does look as though things are going to get somewhat more complicated for the U.S. carrier in 2016. The company did post their latest quarterly results yesterday and even these proved to be somewhat more complicated in understanding where the company currently is at. If you take their churn rate into consideration, then they did show an improvement and some positive momentum. However, the result also highlights that the price-per-share has not only dropped but had dropped even more than expected. So a mixed bag of good and bad results really.
Following the initial results reporting, Sprint CEO, Marcelo Claure came out detailing the various cost-cutting measures the company will have to take in 2016. The news of the costs are not new news as they had long been announced and expected over the last few months. However, as 2016 approaches more details are now starting to come though with Claure confirming that a number of job cuts will commence in January and remaining employees will have to adopt much more of an “owner’s mentality” with how the business is run.
This seems to be a sentiment which has today been echoed by Sprint’s parent company, SoftBank. SoftBank Chairman, Masayoshi Son, has effectively said the same as Claure during the company’s own earnings call today. During the call, Son confirmed that the job cuts at Sprint will be in the “thousands” and are designed to try and accommodate an annual spending deficit of about $2 billion. In fact, according to Son, the $2 billion marker is being seen as “a minimum target” with Sprint possibly needing to “go even deeper” to swell the current tide. Of course, whether these job cuts or the continually reported on cost-cutting measures that employees will have to personally undertake will have any impact on the current Sprint climate, remains to be seen. One of their biggest issues seems to be T-Mobile who consistently are making gains in areas where Sprint is losing out. Cost-cutting is only one side of the equation and it is likely Sprint will need to compete better with T-Mobile, as well as cost cutting to ensure a real turnaround next year.