Sprint Posts Q2 Miss, To Cut 2,000 Additional Jobs

Sprint Corporation S sank more than 6 percent in Monday's extended session after the company posted a wider-than expected loss for the second quarter and warned of higher costs in the current period.

The company said it will cut $1.5 billion in annual costs and reduce its work force by an additional 2,000 positions. Total labor costs will fall by $400 million as a result of these job cuts and earlier recent actions.

At the start of 2014, Sprint employed 38,000 people.

Sprint has been locked in a price war with competitors over consumer phone services, and called the recent period a "transitional quarter" with the appointment of Marcelo Claure as chief executive in August.

Sprint warned that third-quarter results will be hurt by higher selling costs and "the significant loss of postpaid phone customers" in recent periods.

The company didn't immediately offer an outlook for estimated revenue or losses.

In the recent period, postpaid phone gross additions grew 37 percent in September from August and increased year-over-year for the first time in 2014.

Sprint also said its data network reliability and speeds improved from a year ago, although it didn't quantify the gains.

Sprint's quarterly net loss widened to $765 million, or $0.19 a share, from $699 million, or $0.18 a share a year earlier. Revenue grew to $8.49 billion, from $7.75 billion a year earlier.

Wall Street expected a loss of $0.10 a share.

Sprint traded recently at $5.78, down 6.7 percent.