<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awtdEXcif_Tk&refer=home>

Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-biggest wireless carrier in the U.S.,
fell the most in more than 25 years in New York trading after losing
more subscribers than analysts estimated and announcing plans to fire
4,000 workers.

Sprint fell 25 percent, the most since at least July 1980. The
company said today that about 683,000 contract customers left last
quarter, more than the 200,000 estimate of Robert W. Baird & Co.'s
William Power.

The subscriber slump brings defections to 1.2 million in 2007,
forcing Chief Executive Officer Daniel Hesse to get rid of about
one-fifth of Sprint's retail locations. Hesse replaced Gary Forsee in
December, taking charge of a company that has struggled to absorb the
$36 billion purchase of Nextel and offer phones to compete with Apple
Inc.'s iPhone, sold by AT&T Inc.

``The subscriber numbers look pretty ugly,'' said Power, who is based
in Dallas and has a neutral rating on Sprint shares. ``It's not
getting better.''

Before the Nextel acquisition in 2005, the companies' combined market
value was about $70 billion, according to Bloomberg data. Today,
Sprint is worth about $24 billion, a drop of almost two-thirds.

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