Daniel Hesse, the new CEO of Sprint Nextel Corp., plans another round of extensive job cuts, likely in the range of a few thousand, the Wall Street Journal reports. The layoffs come during a protracted period of poor performance for Sprint, the nation’s third largest cellular carrier, which analysts say has fallen far behind top rivals AT&T and Verizon in total customers and customer service.
Sprint purged 5,000 employees during an earlier round of cost-cutting last year, before Hesse took over. The Journal reports he's also considering a plan to consolidate the company's headquarters in suburban Kansas City, bringing Sprint and former Nextel execs together at one location for the first time since the two companies merged in 2005. The consolidation may also slow the rollout of Sprint's WiMax high-speed wi-fi service. (More Sprint Nextel stories.)