Sprint Posts Upside Surprise as It Swaps CEOs

Sprint's fiscal year 2017 results, announced late on Wednesday afternoon, illustrates perfectly why the operator is the junior partner in the proposed merger with T-Mobile, expected to close in the first half of 2019.

Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) posted revenue of $8.08 billion, down from $8.54 billion during the same period last year. Net income was $69 million, $0.02 per share, compared with a loss of $283 million, $0.07 per share, a year ago.

Thomson Reuters analysts had expected a loss of $0.07 a share for the quarter.

In contrast, on Tuesday, T-Mobile US Inc. posted T-Mobile US Inc. posted revenue $10.46 billion, up 8.87% year-on-year with net income of $671 million. (See T-Mobile Talks Up Its Quad Play Opportunity & Network Savings by Buying Sprint.)

Sprint added 39,000 net postpaid subscribers for the quarter ended March 31, bringing its total postpaid connections to 32.12 million overall, with an average revenue per user of $44.40.

Sprint announced on Wednesday that Marcelo Claure will be replaced by current CFO, Michel Combes, on May 31. (See Combes in as Sprint CEO, Claure Gets Booted Upstairs.)

Sprint shares are down $0.50 (0.97%) to $5.21 in afterhours trading.

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading