Sprint books $29.5 billion Q4 loss

No wonder Sprint (NYSE: S) dropped that “Simply Unlimited” plan on us today.

The No. 3 wireless carrier in the US has seen better days, but the latest financial report indicates that this might be one of the darker, red ink-stained days of Sprint’s existence. Sprint Nextel has posted a remarkable $29.45 billion loss in Q4 2007. That loss is more than the company’s market capitalization of slightly less than $25 billion – compared to Sprint’s combined market-cap of $33 billion when it merged with Nextel in 2005. The company saw revenues drop 5.7%, to $9.85 billion, from the previous year.

Sprint’s doing everything it can to stop the bleeding of cash and customers that we’ve seen for months now. The new unlimited calling plan offering could be seen as another desperate move by Sprint to bring their finances back into the “profitable” region – or at least not as painful a loss as its seen recently.

Still, Sprint’s chief, Dan Hesse, admits that the Sprint “Simply Everything” plan isn’t the end-all solution to Sprint financial woes. “I want to make it clear that it’s not a silver bullet,” he said. “But it’s a very important piece.”  Alas, there are probably not enough people in the unlimited calling plan demographic to really boost Sprint’s defection numbers and lagging sales.

Get that XOHM/WiMAX network up and rolling, Hesse. You might want to get the ball rolling a little quicker, lest you risk not having the money to even launch the network when the time comes.

[Via: CellularNews]