Sprint Posts Higher-Than-Expected Revenue

Sprint, the No. 3 American wireless provider after Verizon and AT&T, recorded higher-than-expected revenue, but it said the Nextel network shutdown was stunting growth in its remaining network because large business customers were leaving.

Sprint added only 12,000 customers to its network, compared with the analysts’ average estimate of almost 198,000 customers.

The company’s top priority is to persuade Nextel customers to move to the Sprint network ahead of the shutdown at the end of this quarter. Some Nextel business clients also canceled subscriptions to Sprint’s remaining network, the company’s chief executive, Dan Hesse, told analysts in a conference call.

Including the Nextel network defections, Sprint lost 560,000 subscribers, compared with the analysts’ average estimate of a loss of almost 525,000.

By contrast, Verizon Wireless, the top American cellphone company, added 677,000 subscribers in the quarter, and the second-ranked AT&T added 296,000.

Sprint reported that its first-quarter loss narrowed to $643 million, or 21 cents a share, from $863 million, or 29 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected on average a loss of 33 cents a share, according to those surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Sprint’s revenue rose to $8.79 billion from $8.73 billion. Analysts had expected $8.71 billion.

The company now expects 2013 adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization to reach the high end of its previously announced goal of $5.2 billion to $5.5 billion, excluding costs of closing strategic transactions.

Sprint’s board is evaluating a $25.5 billion acquisition offer from Dish, a satellite TV service, which has challenged the company’s October agreement to sell 70 percent of itself to SoftBank for $20.1 billion.

During a conference call with analysts, Sprint did not comment on the Dish offer but it said the SoftBank deal could close as soon as July 1.