Dow Jones Business News
Sprint CFO Not Concerned That Affiliates Will Dim Network
Tuesday February 25, 7:21 pm ET
By Christine Nuzum
biz.yahoo.com
NEW YORK -- Sprint Corp. dismissed concerns that its debt-laden affiliates will shut down the parts of the network they control if more should file for bankruptcy protection.
"We are not concerned about the network going dark," Chief Financial Officer Robert Dellinger said at a Merrill Lynch conference here Tuesday. "That is in no one's interest."
Sprint's 10 affiliates are responsible for roughly 25% of the wireless network's coverage. Monday, one of the affiliates, iPCS, filed for bankruptcy protection and sued Sprint, alleging failure to meet its financial obligations to the affiliate. Combined, the 10 affiliates have $3 billion in debt.
When asked about pending management changes, Mr. Dellinger had nothing new to say. William Esrey, chairman and chief executive, and Ronald LeMay, chief operating officer, have been forced out over a questionable method of deferring taxes on stock option gains. However, they remain in their roles as a noncompete contract has complicated Sprint's hiring of the board's choice for a new CEO -- Gary Forsee, vice chairman of BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - News) .
"We're still running the business," Mr. Dellinger said. "Bill and Ron are still at their desks most days a week."
Sprint currently has no plans to merge its FON Group and PCS Group tracking stocks, he said. He suggested that the combination could wait until the PCS Group is generating free cash flow so that the type of investors that the two tracking stocks attract would be more similar.
However, he added that he doesn't know how the new management team will treat the tracking stocks.
-By Christine Nuzum, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5172 |
