14 DAY TRIAL // Sprint Nextel Corp. announced today its financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2009, and posted revenues of almost $7.9 billion, representing a 7 percent decrease when compared to the same quarter of the previous year, and a 2 percent decrease from the third quarter of 2009. The company also revealed a net loss of $980 million for the quarter, as well as consolidated net operating revenues of $32.3 billion for the entire year 2009.
According to the company, it lost a total of 69,000 net retail subscribers during the fourth quarter of the last year, stating that it registered the best year-over-year post-paid gross addition improvement in its history. The carrier notes that its net post-paid subscriber losses improved by around 40 percent during the second half of the last year, when compared to the same time frame a year before or with the first half of 2009.
“The company generated $666 million of Free Cash Flow in the quarter, and $2.8 billion for full-year 2009, the highest annual Free Cash Flow since the Sprint Nextel merger. As of December 31, 2009, Sprint had more than $3.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments and $2.7 billion in borrowing capacity available under its revolving bank credit facility, for a total liquidity of $6.6 billion,” the carrier also notes.
In addition, Sprint announced that its 4G services were at the moment available for users in 27 markets around the country, and that more than 30 million people could benefit from them. The services should cover more than 120 million users by the end of 2010, the carrier says, adding that it already planned the deployment of the services in major metropolitan areas like Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
Other highlights from the company's announcement include: - Adjusted OIBDA was $1.4 billion for the quarter, compared to $1.7 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008 and $1.5 billion for the third quarter of 2009. The year-over-year decline in Adjusted OIBDA was due to revenue declines as a result of fewer post-paid subscribers, partially offset by lower cost of service and lower SG&A expenses. - Capital expenditures were $554 million in the quarter, compared to $548 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 and $431 million in the third quarter of 2009. - Free Cash Flow was $666 million for the quarter, compared to $536 million for the fourth quarter of 2008 and $664 million for the third quarter of 2009. During the fourth quarter, the company repaid in full $1.0 billion of the outstanding borrowings under its $4.5 billion revolving credit facility, provided $1.1 billion additional investment in Clearwire and paid $560 million in net cash as part of the purchase price to acquire Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. and iPCS, Inc.