Sprint axes 2,500 jobs as part of $2.5 billion cost-cutting restructuring

[Shawn Knight]

Sprint is making good on its promise to drastically reduce operating costs over a six-month period, handing out pink slips to thousands of employees across six customer care centers and its headquarters.

The nation's fourth largest wireless provider has reduced its headcount by at least 2,500, a figure that includes 574 job cuts at its Overland Park, Kansas, headquarters. The company's customer service division was hit the hardest, Sprint spokesperson Michelle Boyd told Reuters.

As a result, call centers in New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia have shut down. Boyd said subscribers are increasingly using the Sprint Zone app and going online for customer care needs, thus lessening the need for an abundance of call center employees.

Employees were notified of their termination last week via e-mail. Details regarding severance packages (for those that qualified) were also communicated at that time.

Shares in the telecom are down more than 12 percent in after-hours trading as of writing.

Sprint employed roughly 42,000 people in 2009 but over the years, we've seen the wireless provider slowly chip away at that figure. In early 2014, the company shut down 55 stores and laid off 330 repair technicians before launching a month-long series of cuts in October. By the end of March 2015, Sprint had just 31,000 people on its payroll.

Three months ago, Sprint CFO Tarek Robbiati said in a memo to staff that they plan to reduce operating costs by $2.5 billion over the following six months.

Lead image courtesy Mike Blake, Reuters

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https://www.techspot.com/news/63597-sprint-axes-2500-jobs-part-25-billion-cost.html

 

[stewi0001]

As much as I understand the logic to reduce staff, but in general do these executives ever think hmmm I could save the company money by reducing my own pay. Of course not XD

 

[9Nails]

My first impression is that 2,500 employees laid off equates to 2.5 Billion? That's a cool $1 Mil per employee. Not a bad job, and they has 2,500 of them to axe?

But, bad math aside, that's a ton of cash to shed in a few months. I'm now under an impression that Sprint is going to die or be acquired by the bigger fish.

 

[mctommy]

And they keep on getting more debt: http://www.forbes.com/sites/splever...ebt-concerns-brutal-competition/#29ea1f48655f

 

[captaincranky]

Gosh, if these big tech companies keep getting rid of employees, they won't have anybody left to sell to. People might go back to farming, erstwhile realizing mobile phones are unnecessary money pits, plain & simple.

(OK, that just might be a silly dream I keep alive for the benefit of my mental health).