NASCAR sponsorship failing Sprint

UPDATE Details are scarce right now, but you can make of it what you will. Sprint hasn't been in the best of situations since it acquired Nextel and its big NASCAR sponsorship contract in 2005, and while this move may not be seen by everyone as definitively negative, it certainly is worth noting.

The flagging carrier sold off "nearly all" (around 3,300) of its wireless communication towers to TowerCo for some $670 million in cash. According to Sprint Nextel's Bob Azzi, the move to lease rather than own these network facilities will enable it to "better focus on its core business of providing communications services to consumers, businesses and government customers." He continued by noting that the transaction "provides Sprint Nextel with additional liquidity [for] greater flexibility in managing the company." In other words we avoided bankruptcy by doing this because the courts would have taken over the company and we may have lost our jobs.

08/14/08 Sprint Nextel disappointed investors once again with some less-than-stellar second quarter results. In particular, the company continues to lose customers at a rapid rate–it lost 901,000 customers in second quarter, giving it a total of 51.9 million customers, compared with 54 million the end of the same quarter last year. On the revenue front, the operator had a second-quarter net loss of $344 million, compared with a year-earlier profit of $19 million. Revenue fell 11 percent to $9.06 billion. Wireless revenue was $7 billion, also a decline of 11 percent year over year.

[Editor's Note: How many more millions of customers does Sprint have to lose before it realizes its marketing strategy stinks. NASCAR fans could give a hoot about buying Sprint's service. They are going to buy cell phone service from whichever provider has the best coverage where they live and work, and based on how fast customers are fleeing Sprint the past 6 months, the provider of choice isn't Sprint, but AT&T, the sponsor on Jeff Burton's car.]