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Nextel posts narrower loss
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February 22, 2000: 2:08 p.m. ET
Wireless company's 4Q revenue up 66%, cites strong subscriber growth
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Nextel Communications Inc. reported on Tuesday a fourth-quarter loss narrower than Wall Street expectations, citing strong subscriber growth.
The Reston, Va.-based company, which provides mobile phone, two-way radio dispatch and paging services, also set a 2-for-1 stock split.
Investors cheered the results, boosting Nextel shares more than 5 percent, or 6-7/8, to 125-9/16, in afternoon trading on Nasdaq, despite a general slump in broader markets.
For the fourth quarter, Nextel posted a loss of $301 million, or 85 cents a diluted share, excluding one-time items; reflecting a narrower loss than the loss of 97 cents a share that had been expected by analysts, according to a survey by earnings tracker First Call Corp.
Nextel (NXTL: Research, Estimates) lost $413 million, or $1.43 a diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
The company, which primarily serves business customers, took an after-tax charge of $68 million, or 19 cents a share, for early payment of debt in the quarter. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 66 percent to $980 million from $582 million in the year-ago quarter.
In an interview on CNNfn, Timothy Donahue, Nextel's president and chief executive, called the quarter the best in Nextel's history, thanks to strong subscriber growth.
"We added 484,000 net new customers ... and I'm happy to say that our churn is also about the 2 percent mark, which also leads the industry," he said of the company, which has some 4.5 million domestic digital subscribers.
"All in all, it was a great quarter topping off a great year for Nextel," Donohue said.
For the year, the company's net loss narrowed to $1.5 billion, or $4.79 a share, from $1.8 billion, or $6.46 a share, in 1998. Revenue increased 80 percent to $3.3 billion from $1.8 billion in 1998.
The stock split is payable June 6 to shareholders of record May 26, contingent upon approval at the company's annual meeting May 25. 
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