Sprint to Lay Off 8000
Not to be outdone by Microsoft in tossing out bad news while they're hoping the rest of the country is still busy wondering just what smartphone the president of the United States is using, Sprint just dropped this press release about how they're going to save $1.2 Billion (with a B) in labor costs. That's one way to write a press release headline, another way is to not hide the sad truth: They are going to lay off 8000 workers by March 31st. The layoffs will come at all levels and in all areas, so basically nobody's safe (though we guess CEO Dan Hesse will stick around a little while longer). We wish these folks the best of luck finding new work.
Sprint also cops to the fact that of the big 4 in the US, they're the only carrier to have lost net subscribers quarter after quarter, but they do point out that they're happy about the Palm Pre and how it may save their bacon. We're impressed with the Pre to, Spint, but you're going to have to do a little better than that. You've dropped subscribers, the physical infrastructure behind your network (which you now lease), and now a bootload of employees. There's getting down to your fighting weight and then there's wasting away, we're starting to worry (again) that we're looking at the latter.
