Sprint CEO Forsee resigns

Sprint chairman and CEO Gary Forsee stepped down today amid growing shareholder pressure over Sprint’s poor financial and operational results and media reports that the company was already in search of a replacement CEO.

Sprint issued a statement today saying it has launched a search committee from the board of directors to find a permanent replacement. Meanwhile Sprint board member James Hance will take over as non-executive chairman, and chief financial officer Paul Saleh will serve as acting CEO until that replacement is found. The announcement came coupled with more negative news about Sprint’s operations. The company said it expected to post a loss of 337,000 post-paid subscribers in the second quarter, with projected revenues falling below the $41 million to $42 million it originally expected.

Lead independent director Irvine Hockaday spoke for the company about Forsee’s resignation, saying the board felt it was the right time to search for a new CEO to guide the company forward.

"The Board's search for selecting its next chief executive will focus on candidates outside the company," Hockaday said in a statement. "We fully expect that the search will be concluded in a timely manner, and we are focused on selecting the right candidate to guide the company to achieve its full potential. Sprint Nextel has the assets, spectrum, customer base and technology to be the leader in wireless mobility services."

Sprint may have the technology roadmap to move forward, but its current dual-network operations have done poorly, as it has posted quarter after quarter of post-paid subscriber drops and profit losses. It has staked its future on a new network technology WiMAX, which will offer broadband data speeds in a wide-area mobile environment. While the service is highly anticipated, the first commercial network won’t go live until April of next year. Meanwhile, its core business continues to suffer, despite attempts to reposition itself with its core consumer and business customer bases.