Sprint Nextel Off Lows As Company May Raise Money

Sprint Nextel Corporation S shares are off their lows of the session, down 15 cents to $2.85, a loss of 5.3% after the company's CFO said the company may return to the public markets to raise capital to help fund the expansion, most notably as the company is purchasing nearly $20 billion worth of Apple's AAPL iPhone 4S to help it compete with Verizon VZ and AT&T T. The CFO also said that he sees profitability from Lightsquared, once it receives clearance from the FCC for the potential GPS issues the company could cause with its network. It sees Network Vision as cash flow positive from 2014. Sprint also announced this morning that it would be cutting off Clearwire CLWR devices after 2012, but the partnership could be extended beyond then. CEO Dan Hesse has said that the number one reason consumers leave Sprint to go to other carriers is the lack of the iPhone. Now that Sprint is carrying the iPhone 4S, this should alleviate customer churn. Hesse said he sees the iPhone as one of the most profitable devices ever, and improving the churn will be a way to improve gains. Hesse went on to say that the Kanas-based company is mostly fighting with Verizon VZ for the top spot, and it has increased total subscribers for five straight quarters. He believes that cash deployment is among the company's main priorities, and the iPhone will take Sprint to the next level. At last check, 132 million shares of Sprint have traded so far today, nearly double the average daily volume.