• January 23, 2008

Anticipating continued downward pressure on its revenues and profits, Sprint Nextel Corp. announced big cuts: The company says it will axe approximately 4,000 jobs, eliminate more than 4,000 third-party distribution points, and shut down 125 stores--about 8% of its company-owned retail locations.

The company has approximately 20,000 total distribution points, including nearly 1,400 company-owned retail locations. For the fourth quarter, Sprint Nextel reported a net gain of 500,000 subscribers, offset by net losses of 683,000 post-paid subscribers and 202,000 traditional prepaid users. The company expects the cuts to decrease labor costs by an annualized rate of $700-$800 million by the end of 2008.

--Sarah Mahoney