NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Sprint Nextel Corp saidon Thursday Chief Financial Officer Paul Saleh and two othertop executives would leave the company in a new managementshake-up as the No. 3 U.S. mobile service grapples withsubscriber declines.
The announcement is the second major move in less than aweek by Sprint’s new Chief Executive Dan Hesse, who wasappointed in December to stem the company’s market share lossesto bigger rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
Sprint shares rose 1.7 percent in pre-market trading fromits New York Stock Exchange close of $8.71.
Saleh will leave the company on Friday, along with ChiefMarketing Officer Tim Kelly and president of sales anddistribution, Mark Angelino. Saleh had served as Sprint’sacting CEO while it conducted a search for a permanent leader.
Last week, the company reported deeper than expectedsubscriber losses and said it would cut about 4,000 jobs as itlost ground to bigger rivals. The news sent Sprint shares downnearly 25 percent and raised fears of a wider slowdown in theU.S. wireless industry.
But AT&T reported on Thursday better-than-expected wirelesssubscriber results for the fourth quarter, adding 2.7 millionnet wireless customers compared with an average forecast of 1.9million, based on four analysts contacted by Reuters.
Hesse said the company has no set time frame to fill theroles, but would name permanent replacements after a review ofits overall strategy.
Sprint controller William Arendt will serve as acting CFOin the interim. John Garcia, senior vice president of productdevelopment, will be acting chief marketing officer and PagetAlves, regional president for sales and distribution, will beacting president of the sales and distribution division.
Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communicationsand Vodafone Group Plc.(Reporting by Michele Gershberg, editing by Gerald E.McCormick)
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