Not many 44-year-olds can put on their resum, that they built a nationwide wireless business from the ground up with a capital infrastructure budget larger than the Boston freeway project. Nor can many people boast that they successfully brought their company to the public market, where the stock was one of the top performing large-cap stocks on the S&P 500 in 1999.
Sprint PCS President and Chief Operating Officer Andrew Sukawaty, who caught the industry by surprise two weeks ago when he announced his July departure from the company, can take credit for the majority of success Sprint PCS has had in its short lifetime, which includes six consecutive record-breaking quarters in subscriber growth to today’s 7 million customers and an early-mover strategy in the wireless data market.
Sukawaty’s move shocked and saddened many Sprint PCS employees, which have grown from 600 to 23,000 since Sukawaty joined the company in 1998, and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry association, whose board rubber-stamped his approval as association chairman just hours before his announcement. Like Jerry Seinfeld, he’s leaving on top.
“When I came here, the market capitalization was $2 billion, now its over $50 billion,” said Sukawaty. “We have really terrific statistics. Churn is down, and we’re hitting on all cylinders. The prospects are great going forward.
“The mobile-phone industry will experience explosive growth. To walk away from that is difficult, but I came here four years ago with goals, and most have been achieved.”
Sukawaty is leaving the mobile-phone industry altogether. He and his family are moving to London, where Sukawaty will take on the role as partner, president and COO of Callahan Associates International L.L.C.
“When I came [to Sprint PCS] four years ago, the digital wireless revolution was about to start, and I was putting together a team of people. It’s a similar situation here,” said Sukawaty.
Callahan, backed by a large group of blue-chip investors, is managing partner of one of Europe’s largest cable operations and is embarking on a business in the European broadband fixed wireless market. The company recently won licenses in Switzerland and Finland. In addition, Callahan formed a company called Nupremis, which is deploying a global network of high-performance Internet data centers that provide Internet applications delivery platforms to customers through co-marketing agreements with broadband access carriers. Sukawaty’s first task will be to set up this business.
Sukawaty stressed that his departure from Sprint PCS was a personal decision and had nothing to do with his company’s pending merger with WorldCom Inc., which appears in jeopardy as the Department of Justice and the European Union heavily scrutinize the deal.
“I was very positive and remain positive on the deal,” said Sukawaty. “I’m also positive about Sprint’s prospects as a standalone company.”
A number of Sprint Corp. executives have walked away since shareholders agreed to merge operations with WorldCom Inc. Sukawaty’s stock options were vested when both companies’ shareholders approved the merger.
Sukawaty said he will resign from the CTIA chairmanship in July. He was elected as the incoming chairman last year and was ceremoniously voted into the position just hours before his resignation from Sprint PCS.
“I thought it would be better to fulfill my obligation rather than leave them in the lurch the day before,” said Sukawaty. “If I had a choice, I certainly would not have selected the timing around the CTIA chairmanship.”
