Sprint Reports Q1 2012 Results: Operating Loss Of $255 million, Sells 1.5 Million iPhones

Posted on Apr 25 2012 - 1:12pm by Editorial Staff

Sprint Nextel today reported a net loss of $863 million and a diluted net loss of $.29 per share for the first quarter of 2012. This compares to a net loss of $439 million and a diluted net loss of $.15 per share in the first quarter of 2011 and includes depreciation of approximately $543 million, or negative $.18 cents per share, primarily due to accelerated depreciation related to the expected shut down of the Nextel platform and a one-time net benefit of $170 million, or approximately $.06 per share, related to the spectrum hosting contract termination with LightSquared.

The company had wireless service revenues of $7.2 billion during the quarter, an increase of more than 7 percent year-over-year, driven primarily by Sprint platform postpaid ARPU growth of $4.03 – the largest year-over-year increase on record for the U.S. wireless industry. The company reported total net subscriber additions of nearly 1.1 million during the first quarter, bringing total ending subscribers to a record 56 million.

The total number of customers on the Sprint platform grew almost 4 percent sequentially including 263,000 postpaid net subscriber additions, 870,000 prepaid net subscriber additions and 785,000 wholesale and affiliate net subscriber additions. Sprint recorded more than 1.5 million iPhone sales in the first quarter with 44 percent going to new customers. Prepaid churn on the Sprint platform improved to 2.92 percent, the tenth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement.

Q1 2012 Results Highlights:

  • Best ever Sprint platform postpaid ARPU increase of $4.03, or 6.9 percent, year-over-year drives Sprint platform wireless service revenue growth of 16 percent year-over-year
  • Operating loss of $255 million; Adjusted OIBDA of $1.2 billion, which includes $104 million in Network Vision related operating expense
  • 263,000 postpaid net additions on the Sprint platform in the quarter – eighth consecutive quarter of postpaid subscriber growth on the Sprint platform
  • Total company net additions of more than 1 million for the sixth consecutive quarter
  • Strong iPhone sales of more than 1.5 million – 44 percent to new customers
  • Continue to expect six major cities to launch 4G LTE by mid-year
  • Continue to expect 12,000 sites on air by end of 2012
  • To date work has begun on 25 percent of planned 2012 sites; 5 percent are on air
  • Nearly 1,300 iDEN sites taken off air to date; expect 9,600 total by the end of the third quarter
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