Sprint has had a rather interesting 2015. It was Marcelo Claure’s first full year running the carrier, and actually accomplished a lot. Claure has been working on building out the network, as he should be, and Sprint’s network has improved in areas. He has also been working to decrease costs at the company and part of that requires layoffs, unfortunately. Sprint has already started their first round of layoffs and they are expected to continue through January, according to the SEC filing.
The company, under Claure’s leadership is looking to trim around $2 billion in operating costs over the next few months. Laying off some employees will definitely help with that, however the company is expected to take a $150 million charge for layoffs in this quarter. That’s due to severance packages and such for the employees being laid off. This includes both management and non-management positions. Sprint’s Chairman, Masayoshi Son has said that “thousands” of positions will become vacant in the next few months. Additionally, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Tarek Robbiati, stated that the budget-cutting won’t be just employees. But that they will be cutting costs wherever they can. Whether that’s in human resources, the network, or even public relations. Another way that the company is looking to trim costs is by building out their network. They pay other carriers (Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T) to allow their customers to roam on their towers when Sprint’s network is non-existent. One of the ways the company is cutting costs in the network is by switching to fiber, which will lower costs in the backhaul.
While Sprint is looking to trim a ton of costs in the next few months, the company is still looking for ways to add customers and stay positive each quarter. prior to Claure taking over in August of 2014, the company had been losing millions of postpaid customers. Which Claure just put a stop to not too long ago and began gaining customers again. Although with them cutting price plans, it’s not helping the company save money and become profitable again. Sprint’s CEO, Marcelo Claure and their Chairman, Masayoshi Son have a long comeback ahead of them.