Sprint Corp. announced it would lay off up to 1,100 employees in its Sprint Business Solutions division, including up to 850 SBS employees and up to 250 employees in corporate functions that support SBS. The company noted the workforce reduction is due to continued realignment of company resources related to its internal restructuring announced last fall and to increasing competitive pressure on its long-distance business.
Sprint, which has already announced 3,500 job cuts since late last year, said affected employees would be notified by mid-July and would be eligible for severance benefits, including an extension of pay and benefits and professional outplacement assistance.
“While we are seeing growing customer acceptance of our integrated portfolio and experiencing strong wireless growth in particular, we continue to see market pressures in our traditional long-distance business,” explained Howard Janzen, president of Sprint’s SBS. “Since announcing our new structure last fall, we have worked hard to reduce costs and improve our processes. This action reflects these ongoing efforts to deploy our resources in a manner that maximizes value for our customers and our shareholders.”
Sprint noted that it still expects to meet previous full-year consolidated adjusted earnings per share of between 70 cents and 75 cents and to post approximately $1.8 billion in consolidated full-year free cash flow due to stronger-than-expected performance from its PCS wireless division, offsetting lower contributions from its global markets division.
