Sprint Corp has now made up its mind, and will follow Pacific Telesys Group Inc in spinning off its cellular operations in order to concentrate on its Personal Communications Services alliance with cable television operators Tele-Communications Inc, Comcast Corp and Cox Communications Inc – it had to choose between the two because Federal rules say you can’t hold licences for both in the same regional market. Sprint Cellular will be spun off to shareholders in a tax-free transaction that analysts value at $2,400m or more – it will take about $1,000m of debt off Sprint Corp’s balance sheet. The spun-off operation would be a well-capitalised new company, with a solid balance sheet and anticipated 1995 revenues approaching $1,000m, more than double from two years ago, declares Sprint chairman and chief executive William Esrey. Sprint Cellular is the eighth-largest US cellular company, providing wireless speech and data service to over 1.24m customers in 87 markets in 14 states. The spin-off is expected to be completed in second quarter 1996, and will then phase out use of the Sprint name.
