Fitch Ratings downgrades Sprint - Kansas City Business Journal:

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billion of outstanding debt of Sprint and giving the company and its subsidiariesx a negativerating outlook. The downgrade involves the issuee default rating and senior unsecured notes ofOverland Park-based Sprin Nextel (NYSE: S), and , Fitch said in a Fitch also withdrew short-term debt ratings for Sprint Nextell and all ratings for subsidiaries and “Sprinrt Nextel’s downgrade is reflective of the significanft continued revenue declines primarily due to the high subscribedr losses as well as the limited visibilityg over the timing and the extentt of how overall operating trendd might improve during 2009,” Fitch said in the release.
“Inb particular, the iDEN operations have continued a sharp deterioratiohn of itsoperating metrics. Fitch believese Sprint Nextel will continue to experience challenges with stabilizing the iDEN operatinv results going forward give n itsniche appeal, the weak busines s economy and subscriber migration.” Earlier Thursday, Sprint , and a loss of 1.27 millio wireless customers, for a loss of 4.58 million subscriberss in 2008.
Fitch said that Sprint Nextekl thinks its past customer problems withcustomer care, networko quality and retail distribution “have been largely resolved” and are comparable with its peers, “thee company’s competitive position also remains weak due to laggingt perception issues, brand challenges and past advertising spend Counteracting these factors, Fitch said, is Sprint’ strong liquidity.
The negative outlook for Sprint and itssubsidiarieas “reflects Fitch’s concern with the continuede limited visibility into whether the company’s current turnaround initiatives will stabilize operating trends during 2009” and “an uncertain outcome relative to the resolution of the litigationb by January of 2010.” Sprint ranks No. 1 on the Kansasa City BusinessJournal ’sz list of area public companies.