Sprint managed to narrow its losses during the third quarter of the calendar year (second quarter of its fiscal year) but was still $48 million in the red over the three-month period ending September 30th, according to the company’s consolidated financial report which was released on Wednesday. The net loss is still somewhat lower compared to what most industry analysts expected, with the fourth largest wireless carrier in the United States being quick to point out that it managed to set a new internal record for the highest share of postpaid phone gross adds. Potspaid phone net adds amounted to 279,000 over the last quarter, with the company also posting 95,000 prepaid net adds, with the latter metric signaling a comeback after Sprint reported 449,000 prepaid net losses 12 months ago.
The wireless carrier’s operating income amounted to $601 million over the last period, thus remaining on the road to recovery from last quarter, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization reaching $2.7 billion. The relatively narrow net loss amounted to 1 cent per share and was significantly smaller than 4 cents per share, i.e. $142 million Sprint posted last year. The mobile service provider also experienced a decline in revenue, dropping from $8.25 billion to $7.93 billion year-on-year, though its annual performance expectations remain unchanged, with its latest outlook for the current fiscal year being identical to the one from the previous quarter and entailing an adjusted EBITDA in the range of $10.8 billion to $11.2 billion, as well as an operating income between $2.1 billion and $2.5 billion. Sprint’s stock started oscillating after the market opened on Wednesday following the publication of its financials and is presently trading at $7.16 or 1.85 percent up.
Sprint Chief Executive Officer Marcelo Claure unsurprisingly applauded his own company’s ability to achieve significant additions in both the prepaid and postpaid market, in addition to hinting at a major M&A announcement in the near future. Sprint was previously expected to formalize its proposal to merge with T-Mobile alongside its consolidated financials but the announcement was reportedly delayed after the negotiations between the two stalled over some unspecified issues which are unlikely to prevent the consolidation from being agreed in the coming weeks. The two are now planning to make their tie-up ambitions official by mid-November, industry sources said earlier this month.