Sprint's new CEO Marcelo Claure is hitting the ground running, promising increased cost efficiency and aggressive competition on his first day on the job.

Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms

August 12, 2014

2 Min Read
Sprint's New Boss Plans Cost Cuts

Just one day into the job, Sprint's new boss Marcelo Claure is house hunting near the company's Overland Park headquarters and preparing employees for cost cuts and a revived aggressive competitive strategy. (See Hesse Out, Claure In: Sprint Is Son's House Now!)

The former Brightstar Corp. CEO will hold a company-wide "town hall" meeting on Thursday to outline his vision for the struggling wireless company. With an acquisition of T-Mobile US Inc. off the table, Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) has to find a way to compete in the market alone, especially against T-Mobile itself, whose boisterous CEO is already waging verbal warfare against Sprint. (See DT Wants Spectrum Favors; Legere Wants Sprint's Slot, T-Mob's Legere Unleashed: 'Total Chaos at Sprint' and Sprint Drops Bid for T-Mobile – Reports .)

Vote for what you think Claure needs to do with Sprint in our new poll here on Light Reading.

Claure didn't share specifics on Sprint's future, but he did say that its new strategy will have to include competing aggressively in the marketplace, building on comments outgoing CEO Dan Hesse made around experimenting with dropping prices on the carrier's most recent earnings call. (See A Short History of Hesse and Sprint, T-Mobile: The Price War's On.)

The plan could also include more job cuts to become more cost efficient. In the memo obtained by Bloomberg, Claure writes, "In the short term, our success will come from our focus on becoming extremely cost efficient and competing aggressively in the marketplace. The management team has been working closely with the board to outline the future strategy of the company."

Claure also alluded to the company's scrapped merger plans with T-Mobile, noting "You have probably seen the many media reports speculating about Sprint's future. As I have already said, consolidating makes sense in the long term but, for now, we will focus on growing and repositioning Sprint."

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Sarah Thomas

Director, Women in Comms

Sarah Thomas's love affair with communications began in 2003 when she bought her first cellphone, a pink RAZR, which she duly "bedazzled" with the help of superglue and her dad.

She joined the editorial staff at Light Reading in 2010 and has been covering mobile technologies ever since. Sarah got her start covering telecom in 2007 at Telephony, later Connected Planet, may it rest in peace. Her non-telecom work experience includes a brief foray into public relations at Fleishman-Hillard (her cussin' upset the clients) and a hodge-podge of internships, including spells at Ingram's (Kansas City's business magazine), American Spa magazine (where she was Chief Hot-Tub Correspondent), and the tweens' quiz bible, QuizFest, in NYC.

As Editorial Operations Director, a role she took on in January 2015, Sarah is responsible for the day-to-day management of the non-news content elements on Light Reading.

Sarah received her Bachelor's in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She lives in Chicago with her 3DTV, her iPad and a drawer full of smartphone cords.

Away from the world of telecom journalism, Sarah likes to dabble in monster truck racing, becoming part of Team Bigfoot in 2009.

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