paging is coming back....
Paging Network Expects To Meet 3rd-Quarter Earnings Estimates
Dow Jones Online News, Thursday, September 11, 1997 at 13:27
Shawn Young
Staff Reporter
DALLAS -(Dow Jones)- As Paging Network Inc.'s John Frazee Jr.
assembles a new management team and moves the nation's largest paging
company toward a new emphasis on marketing and customer service, the
company said Thursday it expects to meet analysts' earnings expectations
for the third quarter.
"We are doing well with regard to expectations. Absolutely," said
Frazee, the company's new chairman, president and chief executive.
Frazee declined to speculate about whether the company (PAGE) will
post a smaller loss than expected, as it did in the second quarter when
it lost $50.5 million, or 49 cents a share, on revenue of $205.4
million, including one-time items. The losses included a charge of 15
cents a share, bringing the operating loss to 34 cents. Analysts
surveyed by First Call Inc. had expected an operating loss of 46 cents a
share. In the year-ago second quarter, the company lost $18.5 million,
or 18 cents a share, on revenue of $172.1 million.
The First Call mean estimate predicts that the Plano, Texas-based
company, commonly known as PageNet, will lose 39 cents a share in the
third quarter. In the year-ago third quarter, the company lost $22
million, or 21 cents a share, on revenue of $180.8 million.
Frazee, 52, is a former president and chief operating officer of
Sprint Corp. (FON) and was chairman and chief executive of Centel Corp.,
which merged with Sprint in 1993.
He moved from a seat on PageNet's board into the top executive slot
last month when the company's founder and former Chairman, George M.
Perrin, stepped down and its former president and chief executive, Glenn
W. Marschel, resigned. Those changes were soon followed by the departure
of Chief Financial Officer Kenneth W. Sanders.
PageNet, which has struggled with widening losses, slowing growth and
increased competition from new wireless services, is now looking for a
new chief financial officer and "the marketing champion of the world,"
Frazee said.
He said he expects to fill the financial job within 30 to 60 days.
The marketing post, he said, will be critical.
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