Sprint CEO Disconnects
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 10/14/2007 8:00:00 PM
Facing a disgruntled board that reportedly had already begun hunting for his successor, Sprint Nextel chairman and CEO Gary Forsee stepped down last Monday.
According to a statement from Sprint board member Irvine Hockaday, the decision to seek a new CEO was “based on the board's belief that it is the right time to put in place new leadership to move the company forward in improving its performance and realizing corporate objectives.” Sprint will focus its CEO search on candidates outside the company, he added.
The nation's No. 3 wireless carrier appointed chief financial officer Paul Saleh as interim chief executive. Forsee's resignation came after press reports said the board, unhappy with Sprint's financial results, was actively canvassing for a new CEO.
Two years ago, Forsee led the formation of the Pivot joint venture with four cable operators — Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Advance/Newhouse Communications — to offer mobile-phone service. This summer Forsee said the joint venture, announced in November 2005, was “a disappointment” in terms of the length of time it has taken to offer service commercially.
Prior to joining Sprint in March 2003, Forsee was vice chairman of BellSouth, responsible for the phone company's domestic operations, and chairman of the Cingular Wireless joint venture with SBC Communications. (Both BellSouth and SBC are now part of AT&T.)
In addition to Forsee's departure, the company announced that it expects to report a net loss of 337,000 post-paid subscribers in the third quarter and said full-year financial results for 2007 would be “slightly below” previous expectations.
Separately, Vonage Holdings last week announced a patent-licensing deal with Sprint worth $80 million and the two companies said they settled Sprint's pending lawsuit.
On Sept. 25, a U.S. District Court jury in Kansas City, Kan., found that Vonage had infringed on six Sprint patents covering voice-over-Internet Protocol technology. Vonage previously had said it planned to appeal the decision.
Under the terms of the settlement, Vonage will have access to Sprint's VoIP patent portfolio of more than 100 patents.
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