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RESTON, Va.—Sprint Nextel Corp. ousted its chief operating officer, Len Lauer.
The company released a statement saying it is making changes in the management of its core operations and that Lauer was leaving the company immediately. Gary Forsee, president and chief executive officer, is assuming Lauer’s responsibilities. The company said it does not plan to name a new COO.
The carrier is coming off a difficult second quarter, including weak postpaid net additions, lower average revenue per user and unchanged churn. Despite the recent operational issues, the move is seen as sudden as Lauer was scheduled as a keynote speaker for the upcoming CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2006 event scheduled to begin Sept. 12.
Lauer joined Sprint in 1998 and replaced Charles Levine as president of Sprint PCS in late 2002. Levine’s departure followed several tough quarters for the wireless carrier, including net customer losses during the third quarter of 2002 attributed to Sprint PCS’ prepaid Clear Pay program.
Lauer added the COO title in 2003, but lost the president title to Forsee following Sprint Corp.’s acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc. last year.
American Technology Research analyst Albert Lin noted that Lauer also recently left his position on VeriSign Inc.’s board of directors and “has become somewhat of a ‘state’s witness’ for the federal prosecutors in the options-backdating issues at VeriSign in exchange for personal immunity.”
A Sprint Nextel representative said Lauer’s departure from the company was not related to the situation with VeriSign. Lauer could not be reached directly for comment.
A VeriSign spokesman described Lin’s comments about Lauer as “wild speculation” and said that Lauer has not turned state’s witness against the company.
“We believe there’s no truth to that,” said VeriSign’s Brian O’Shaughnessy.
Sprint Nextel’s stock touched a new 52-week low of $15.92 per share in trading after the news, but rose slightly to $16.13 shortly thereafter.
