Sprint lets go of CFO, CMO, head of sales

January 25, 2008

Sprint posted net losses of 202,000 traditional prepaid users and 683,000 post-paid subscribers last quarter

Sprint Nextel yesterday announced the departure of its chief financial officer, chief marketing officer and head of sales in the same week that it admitted subscriber losses.

William G. Arendt, currently senior vice president and controller of Sprint Nextel, will serve as acting chief financial officer in place of Paul Saleh. Tim Kelly is being replaced by John Garcia, currently senior vice president of product development and now acting CMO.

Paget Alves, currently Sprint Nextel’s regional president for sales and distribution, will step in for Mark Angelino, as acting president of sales and distribution.

All will report directly to Sprint’s recently appointed president/CEO, Daniel Hesse, the company said. 

This follows Sprint’s companywide restructuring annoucement earlier this week. In reaction to net losses of 202,000 traditional prepaid users and 683,000 post-paid subscribers last quarter, Sprint said it would cut 4,000 employees and close approximately 125 company-owned retail locations.

Sprint also announced yesterday its filing of four patent infringement actions in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas for its Voice over Packet patent portfolio.

The lawsuits are against NuVox Communications Inc., Broadvox Holdings LLC, Big River Telephone Company and Paetec Communications Inc.

Sprint is seeking monetary damages and an injunction against these companies.

The lawsuits follow Sprint’s recent legal action against phone company Vonage Holdings Inc. Vonage agreed to a $80 million license agreement under Sprint’s VOP portfolio as part of the settlement.

The same patent infringement claims against Vonage and Voiceglo have been asserted in the new cases.