Sprint Corp. announced Monday a reshuffle among senior
management as CEO Marcelo Claure tries to turnaround the struggling
wireless provider.
Chief Financial Officer Joseph Eutenauer will step down after
holding the post for more than four years through a period of
financial distress. He will be replaced by Tarek Robbiati, most
recently the CEO of FlexiGroup Ltd., an Australian consumer finance
company, the company said. Mr. Robbiati previously held senior
management positions at telecommunications companies in Australia
and Hong Kong.
The management moves come a day before Sprint is slated to
report its quarterly results on Tuesday morning. The company is
expected to have slipped to fourth place in the competitive U.S.
wireless industry amid its own struggles and resurgence of T-Mobile
US Inc., according to analysts. Earlier this year, Sprint wrote
down the value of its brand by $1.9 billion.
Sprint shares closed Monday at $3.34. They have lost 25% of
their value in the past month and 55% in the past year.
The company also named Gü nther Ottendorfer as chief operating
officer of technology. He was previously chief technology officer
of Telekom Austria Group. Sprint also promoted Chief Network
Officer John Saw to chief technology officer reporting to Mr.
Ottendorfer.
Junichi Miyakawa, who was technical chief operating officer,
will be a senior technical adviser to Mr. Claure and work as a
liaison between majority owner SoftBank and Sprint for network
strategy.
Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank bought control of the
American wireless carrier in 2013 for about $22 billion with plans
to shake up the business and steal customers, but the turnaround
hasn't materialized. The company spent much of last year talking
with T-Mobile about a potential merger that was eventually scuttled
because of open opposition from regulators.
Mr. Claure, who took the reins after the T-Mobile combination
was abandoned, is approaching his one-year anniversary at the
company and needs to show Wall Street analysts and investors that
he is able to stem customer losses and is making progress in
revamping Sprint's lagging wireless network.
Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com
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