Sprint Corp., the nation's
third largest long distance carrier, said Thursday it will
proceed with a $500 million public offering of Sprint PCS common
stock with proceeds from the sale used by the Sprint PCS Group
to continue to expand its wireless phone network.
In October, Sprint delayed the offering, citing market
conditions, but later went ahead with the recapitalization which
created two classes of common stock for its core operations and
it wireless phone venture.
The company also released preliminary fiscal fourth quarter
results for its PCS Group and said revenues are expected to
range between $430 million and $450 million.
PCS earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization are expected to be a loss ranging between $590
million to $610 million, which compares with a loss of about
$350 million in the third quarter 1998. The company said the
EBITDA loss is within its expectations.
Also, PCS added about 830,000 customers in the fourth
quarter, which is more than double the number of sales in the
third quarter 1998, Sprint said.
Strong holiday sales and the opening of 48 new markets
contributed to the strong fourth quarter customer growth, the
company said.
