HTC shares dip on shipment delay

16 May 2012 Last updated at 09:06 GMT The success of the new models is being considered as key to HTC's fortunes Shares of Taiwan's HTC have fallen after US customs officials held up shipments of its new smartphones.

In December, HTC was found guilty of infringing a patent held by Apple and there is a ban on the sale of any HTC phones in the US that use technology involving that patent.

HTC said that it had altered its technology and design, but that the shipments still require inspection.

Its shares dropped 6.6% to close at NT$411 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

"The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard US customs review of shipments that is required after an International Trade Commission exclusion order," the firm said in a statement.

Setback The Taiwanese firm, which was one of the early leaders in Android-powered smartphones, has been hurt by increasing competition in the sector.

Last month, it reported that its first quarter net profit had dropped by 70% from a year earlier.

It also said revenues had fallen by 35% during the period, raising concerns that it was fast losing out to rivals such as Samsung and Apple.

In an attempt to regain its market share, the firm announced the launch of the new models earlier this year.

Analysts said that the delay in the shipment of these models was a setback for the firm as it was likely to hurt sales in one of its key markets and result in the competition gaining more ground.

However, HTC said it was trying to resolve the issue with the authorities.

"We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with customs to secure approval."

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Facebook to sell 25% more shares

16 May 2012 Last updated at 16:23 GMT Facebook has 900 million users but its income stream is small in comparison to its size Facebook says it will sell 25% more shares than first planned in its flotation in response to strong demand.

The move comes one day after the social networking giant said it would raise the price of the shares by 21% to between $34-$38 a share.

It also comes despite doubts about the profitability of the site, which is largely used for social updates.

Car giant General Motors added to those doubts by saying on Tuesday it would no longer pay to advertise on the site.

However, rival Ford said it would continue its social media strategy. A spokesman said: "You just can't buy your way into Facebook. You need to have a credible presence and be doing innovative things."

Facebook will add about 84 million shares to its initial public share offering (IPO) and will now sell about 421 million shares, up from 337 million, raising $18bn (£11.3bn).

This is still only a small percentage of the entire company, and implies Facebook's full market value is around $100bn, similar to that of internet shopping giant Amazon.

The company makes only around $5 a year per member and has identified mobile devices, phones and tablet computers, as a key area for revenue growth.

But Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy, said building that revenue would not be straightforward.

"Mobility is Facebook's biggest challenge in that they don't monetise it currently, but it is where the largest growth is."

He pointed to sites such as Groupon, which offers discounts on goods and services to subscribers, as one potentially profitable sector: "I expect them to target the local deals sector first then tie it in with check-ins.

"I expect them to either buy Groupon and Foursquare, or very quickly build-out these capabilities."

Initial rise?

The extra allotment of shares and the raising of the target price were both moves that were anticipated by analysts.

Mr Moorhead said that despite the increased share allotment and higher price range, he expected the price of shares to rise further initially: "For IPOs like this, they always rise on the first day, dip slightly, then the market readjusts over the next few months."

The actual price of the shares is expected to be revealed on Thursday with open market trading pencilled in to begin on Friday.

If all the shares are sold at the new higher price, the IPO would be the third-largest initial share sale in US history, after the financial giant Visa and General Motors.

The company could add even more shares to the sale as there are more than 60 million additional shares that could be sold to cover excess demand.

The eight-year-old social network has 900 million users worldwide and made a profit of $1bn last year.

The new shareholders will not have much say in how the business is run.

The shares on offer are "A" shares, which carry one vote per share, as is normal.

But the current owners' shares are "B" shares, which carry 10 votes each.

They will control more than 96% of the votes after the public listing, with founder Mark Zuckerberg holding just under 56% of the voting power of the company.

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Ocado sales slowdown hits shares

19 September 2011 Last updated at 09:37 GMT Continue reading the main story Shares in online grocer Ocado have fallen more than 11% after reporting a slowdown in sales growth.

Ocado, which sells mostly Waitrose products, said sales rose 16.9% in the 12 weeks to August 7, down from a rate of 20.8% in the previous six months.

The company also said full-year profit margins were likely to rise by less than expected as it invests in improving customer service.

It hopes to expand warehouse capacity to help it keep up with demand.

Ocado is increasing the size and capability of its distribution centre at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

It said its investments had already improved customer service in the third quarter, with 99% of items delivered as ordered, and 95.5% made on time or early.

Ocado hopes to be able to deal with 140,000 orders per week by the end of the current quarter, compared with 111,000 in its third quarter.

Ocado is also building a new distribution centre in Dordon, Warwickshire, which is expected to be open at the end of 2012.

Earlier this year, Waitrose announced it would be expanding its online presence to within the M25 area, which many retail analysts said would likely take orders away from Ocado.

Ocado was founded in 2001 by three former Goldman Sachs bankers.

Its shares floated at 180 pence in July 2010, but at Monday's close Ocado's shares stood at 118.4p, down 11.4% on the day.

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Shares up on central bank action

16 September 2011 Last updated at 13:12 GMT Rajiv Biswas: "Intervention is an important step"

European shares have risen further, following gains in Asia, as markets continue to react to Thursday's news of emergency measures by central banks.

Frankfurt's Dax was up 1.1%, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.7% and the Cac 40 in Paris added 0.6% by mid-afternoon.

Earlier, Japan's Nikkei 225 index had risen 2.3% and South Korea's Kospi index gained 3.7%.

The central banks are trying to encourage lenders, especially in Europe, to keep lending to each other.

They are to provide commercial banks with three additional tranches of loans to help ease funding pressures.

There have been fears that credit markets may freeze up, with banks facing billions of dollars of losses as a number of European countries struggle to service their debt obligations.

Banks have been the top gainers around Europe, with Barclays up 5.4%, RBS up 5.1%, Lloyds up 4.5%, Deutsche Bank up 5.2%, Commerzbank up 4.3% and Societe Generale up 3.5%.

Europe's finance ministers are meeting in Poland on Friday in an attempt to chart out a plan to deal with the debt crisis in the region. They have also been joined by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Here to stay?

Greece is the current focus of investor concern, and there are growing fears that the country may default on its bonds.

This has made European banks reluctant to lend to each other, creating the risk of short-term funding problems for those most exposed.

Continue reading the main story

We are still nowhere near out of the woods. They are just barely keeping the economy from falling off a cliff”

End Quote Tony Nunan Mitsubishi Corp Peter Cardillo of Rockwell Global Capital said the move by central banks hoped to "convince the market that the euro is here to stay, euro land is not going to disintegrate and Greece is probably going to avoid a default".

Following the news of the central bank co-operation, the euro rose more than 1% against the US dollar, and the price of crude oil gained on optimism global economic growth would help boost demand.

At the same time, the price of gold dropped as investors shifted away from an asset that is seen as giving them protection against global risks. The price of gold has surged in recent months, and many investors are wary about the outlook for further gains.

The five central banks involved in the market co-operation are the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank.

The new loans are being issued in dollars, because European banks can already access additional euro funds from the European Central Bank. The three additional three-month loan offers will be conducted in October, November and December.

Risks questioned

There have been concerns that a credit crunch in the markets would hurt companies and consumers.

"Increasingly I think international banks outside of Europe are questioning the counter-party risks involved with lending to European banks," Rajiv Biswas of IHS Global Insight told the BBC's Asia Business Report.

Mr Biswas added that given the current situation, the move by the central banks could not have come soon enough.

"I think this step was very important in avoiding the kind of problems we saw in 2008, when we had that terrible crunch in credit markets, which really was a major negative factor for the global economic outlook," he added.

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Bank shares fall after euro talks

17 August 2011 Last updated at 17:02 GMT Investors were hoping for more detailed proposals on how to solve the eurozone debt crisis European bank shares have fallen after Franco-German plans to tackle the euro debt crisis underwhelmed investors.

Barclays fell 4.2%, RBS 3.8%, Deutsche Bank 2.8% and Societe Generale 2.5%.

A tax on financial transactions, promoted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday, also hit the shares of the operators of leading exchanges.

NYSE Euronext, owner of several continental bourses, was 4.7% lower at the close of trading.

Shares in Deutsche Boerse fell 4.4% and the London Stock Exchange was down 2.8%.

'Gift'

The tax could be used to raise money to help bolster any future bailout funds, but the proposal has already met with opposition from one member state.

"We can't have a situation where there is a transaction tax in Dublin and there is no transaction tax in London," said the Irish Republic's Finance Minister, Michael Noonan.

Deutsche Boerse also questioned the effectiveness of a tax on financial institutions.

"Such a tax generates incentives to switch even more to niches that are not covered by this tax and would be a gift for the unregulated financial centers and financial products in this world," the exchange said.

Continue reading the main story

The Paris summit was intended to send a signal that these two leaders recognise that if the single currency is to work, it will require closer economic integration.”

End Quote Gavin Hewitt BBC Europe editor Markets overall remained steady, but have yet to recoup much of the sharp losses seen last week.

Frankfurt's Dax index ended Wednesday down 0.8% and London's FTSE 100 0.5%, but the Cac 40 in Paris rose 0.7%.

The gold price hit a new a record high, reflecting continued uncertainty over the debt situation in the eurozone and the US.

After falling back towards the end of last week, it hit $1,795 an ounce in early trading before slipping slightly.

The Swiss franc - another haven for investors - also rose again, despite efforts by the Swiss authorities to dampen its value.

Eurobonds

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Tuesday night for "true economic governance" for the eurozone in response to the debt crisis.

The leaders called for much closer economic policy in the eurozone, but said that this could only be achieved by a "step-by-step" process.

Mrs Merkel also stressed that issuing so-called eurobonds - IOUs issued to investors backed by the eurozone as a whole rather than individual countries - would not be on the agenda until closer economic union had been achieved.

Some policymakers and investors have argued that issuing these bonds would go a long way to calming volatile stock markets and resolving the debt crisis.

Continue reading the main story Last Updated at 04:44 GMT

Market indexCurrent valueTrendVariation% variationBoth the Italian Finance Minister, Giulio Tremonti, and billionaire investor George Soros have backed the idea.

Harmonising tax

To tackle concerns about high levels of debt among eurozone governments in general, Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy proposed that a requirement for member states to balance their budgets should be enshrined in each of their constitutions by the summer of 2012.

In another initiative to increase tax revenues, the leaders advocated harmonising corporate tax rates across the single currency.

The two leaders also said they wanted bi-annual meetings of the 17 heads of the eurozone governments, chaired by Herman van Rompuy, the current president of the European Council.

As well as proposals for the eurozone as a whole, the meeting also came up with some bilateral plans between Germany and France.

These included plans for a joint proposal on a financial transactions tax and meetings to exchange views about economic and budgetary policies.

In addition, French and German finance ministers are to come up with ideas to increase the convergence and competitiveness of the two economies, in particular a proposal for a joint business tax.

Patrice Perois at Kepler Capital Markets said: "There weren't any scoops as the proposals had been mentioned over the past few days. Overall, the outcome of the meeting wasn't convincing, with no eurobond project."

Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy were meeting in Paris in the wake of recent turmoil on the financial markets, which came amid fears of a renewed global recession and concerns that Spain and Italy may be dragged into the debt crisis.

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HP shares tumble on Autonomy bid

19 August 2011 Last updated at 20:16 GMT Continue reading the main story Shares in Hewlett-Packard have fallen sharply on news that it is buying UK software firm Autonomy and may sell its PC business.

HP's future plans also include no longer selling smartphones and tablet computers and refocusing on selling software.

HP shares fell 20% in Friday trading to close at $23.58.

HP's £7.1bn ($11.7bn) offer for Autonomy, accepted by Autonomy's board, is 64% above the firm's market value.

HP's PC business is the world's largest, but by the end of next year, HP computers could be sold under another company's name.

'Strong starting point'

Analysts say the move underscores Apple's dominance in smartphones and tablets with its iPhone and iPad products.

"Apple single-handedly knocked HP out of the PC, smartphone and tablet business," said Gleacher & Co analyst Brian Marshall.

The new strategy means that HP, which will continue to sell servers and other equipment to business customers, will follow the path taken by IBM in 2005, sidelining PC hardware in favour of more profitable software and services.

Continue reading the main story Tim Weber Business editor, BBC News website

Chief executive Leo Apotheker had big ambitions for the consumer market. He wanted HP to become "as cool as Apple", challenge the iPhones, iPads and Android smartphones of this world with his Touchpads and Pre phones.

To Mr Apotheker's credit, he quickly realised that he could not out-apple Apple.

HP is leaving the PC business with its razor-thin margins to focus on highly profitable computing for businesses instead.

This is where the purchase of UK software firm Autonomy fits in.

Companies have one big IT problem right now: how to process, store and understand the rapidly growing data deluge that is flooding in from ever more connected devices and web services.

Autonomy has been pushing hard in this field of "business intelligence" and "business analytics". It will be Mr Apotheker's challenge to integrate successfully such a big new division with HP's other software offering.

Analyst Milan Radia at Jefferies said the deal gave HP an "exceptionally strong starting point" in the enterprise software market.

"Today, software accounts for only about 2% of HP's revenue," he said. "By way of comparison, IBM's software journey only commenced in 2001 with a $1bn acquisition, followed by a series of major transactions."

Forecast trimmed

Autonomy was set up by researchers at Cambridge University and specialises in pattern-recognition technologies.

HP will pay 2,550 pence per share, compared with a closing price in London on Wednesday of 1,558p.

The implied valuation of the company is equivalent to 47 times the pre-tax profits earned by Autonomy in the 12 months to June this year.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, HP announced quarterly results that were largely in line with expectations, with revenues of $31.2bn (£18.9bn), up 1.6% from a year earlier.

HP trimmed its maximum full-year forecast from $130bn to $127.6bn, echoing a similar reduction by Dell on Tuesday.

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‘Way Back Home’ Stars Shares Fashion and Fitness Secrets on ‘Us Girls’

Get to know more about the “Way Back Home” lead stars–Kathryn, Julia, Sam and Enrique–on Us Girls.

Get intimate with the lead stars of “Way Back Home” Julia Montes, Kathryn Bernardo, Sam Concepcion and Enrique Gil as they share their secrets on fashion, diet, beauty and fitness in “Us Girls” this Thursday (August 18).

Iya Villania, Chesca Garcia-Kramer, and Angel Aquino will hunt for hangout spots and inexpensive dining places with good food and great value, while radio’s popular DJs like Jasmin of Tambayan 101.9 and Papa Jack will offer their warm advice for our Kabarkadas’ romance and relationship problems.

All these and more in “Us Girls” this Thursday (August 17), 9:30pm on Studio 23. If you miss it, you can watch it online on Studio 23's Catch Up TV via www.studio23.tv.

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Dreamworks Shares ‘Fright Night’ Fun Facts

In anticipation of the upcoming release of “Fright Night,” DreamWorks shares some interesting trivia about the new vampire thriller starring Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin.

A revamp of the 1985 comedy-horror classic, “Fright Night” is directed by Craig Gillespie and also stars Toni Collette, David Tennant, Imogen Poots and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

In the film, senior Charlie Brewster (Yelchin) finally has it all—he’s running with the popular crowd and dating the hottest girl in high school. In fact, he’s so cool he’s even dissing his best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). But trouble arrives when an intriguing stranger Jerry (Farrell) moves in next door. He seems like a great guy at first, but there’s something not quite right—and everyone, including Charlie’s mom (Collette), doesn’t notice. After witnessing some very unusual activity, Charlie comes to an unmistakable conclusion: Jerry is a vampire preying on his neighborhood. Unable to convince anyone that he’s telling the truth, Charlie has to find a way to get rid of the monster himself.

“Fright Night” boasts a truly international cast. Gillespie and Collette are from Australia, Poots was born in England, Farrell hails from Ireland, Tennant is from Scotland and Yelchin is from Russia.Gillespie directed Collette to an Emmy® Award and a Golden Globe® Award for her starring role in Showtime’s “United States of Tara.”Farrell, who plays the role of the vampire Jerry, is such a fan of the original “Fright Night” that he has seen the classic horror film at least 12 times.Tennant, portraying vampire expert Peter Vincent, is a classically trained British actor.When Poots shot an old revolver at vampire Jerry, it was the first time she had ever fired a gun. The gun created for her is actually a replica of a gun owned by World War II hero, General George S. Patton.“Fright Night” screenwriter Marti Noxon has a lot of experience with the undead, having previously written for vampires on the popular television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”“Fright Night” is set in Las Vegas, where late-night activity is not viewed as out of the ordinary.One-of-a-kind props include the St. Michael’s stake, which was whittled from wood and bone, the Assyrian Egyptian vampire stake, the Polynesian stake, crosses, vials of holy water and a stake gun, all designed and built by Prop Master Ben Lowney.Lowney used a sharp piece of bone to create one of the vampire stakes. On the cap, he inscribed something cryptic in ancient Greek and Latin, which he is keeping as a secret while waiting for someone to slow down the movie and decipher what has been written.To create a crucifix nail that looks ancient, Lowney researched photos of Roman nails that are in the British Museum. To achieve the same look, he soaked an iron bolt in acid for a week. When finished, it looked like a relic.

Opening soon across the Philippines, “Fright Night is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International.

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Nintendo shares slump after loss

29 July 2011 Last updated at 07:17 GMT Nintendo's latest gadget the 3DS has not made a big impact on the market Shares in Nintendo have tumbled on the Tokyo stock exchange a day after the company announced a loss in the first quarter.

The shares closed down 13%, having fallen as much as 20%, on news of the worse-than-expected profits figures.

On Thursday, Nintendo reported a net loss of 25.5bn yen ($324m, £201m) for the April-to-June quarter, its first-ever quarterly loss.

The company also cut its full-year profit forecast.

Nintendo said it now expects a net profit of 20bn yen for the year to March 2012, down 82% from its previous projection.

'Underweight' Nintendo earnings were hit by weak sales of its new gadget, the handlheld 3DS console.

In an attempt to boost sales the company has announced huge price cuts.

The price in Japan will be about 40% less - retailing at 15,000 yen. In the US, the price will drop next month to $169.99 from $249.99.

However, analysts said the price cut may hurt the company's earnings even further.

"The timing of the 3DS hardware price cut is surprising, given the major in-house software releases," said Hiroshi Kamide of JP Morgan.

"We believe the 3DS will be a heavy weight on earnings over the medium term," he added.

JP Morgan also cut its rating on Nintendo from "overweight" to "underweight," saying the current situation was worse than feared and the outlook uncertain.

Tired customers?

To make matters worse for the gaming giant, industry watchers say sales of the 3DS are unlikely to turn around anytime soon.

"Software is a big problem. Right now there are not many games available for the 3DS," said David Abrams, of CAGCast Video Game.

Mr Abrams added that while the 3DS has had a lukewarm response, smartphones continue to capture an increasing share of the gaming market.

He said easy availability of games and their low cost meant more and more people were preferring smartphones over specialised gadgets.

"The question is, are people willing to spend a premium to play the next Mario game or would they spend that amount to buy close to 40 games on their smartphones," he said

Mr Abrams added that despite the launch of its latest version, the DS gadget has been losing its charm.

"The reality is that people may be tired of the whole DS concept. It has been around for almost seven years," he said.

"May be its not that exciting to people anymore," he added.

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Nintendo shares dive on crumbling profit outlook

TOKYO | Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:15am EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd's shares plunged on Friday, wiping off as much as $5 billion of the videogame maker's market value, after it slashed its full-year profit forecast to the lowest level in 27 years.

Profits are set to shrivel after Nintendo was forced to cut the price of its 3DS handheld games device to try to jumpstart weak sales, just six months after launching the gadget that it hoped would replicate the success of the previous generation DS.

Shares of the Kyoto-based firm hit 11,100 yen, its lowest intraday level since May 2004 before recovering to trade down about 15 percent in early afternoon.

Nintendo slashed its annual operating profit forecast in after-market hours on Thursday to 35 billion yen from an initial forecast of 175 billion yen. The new estimate is far short of the previous consensus of 154.9 billion yen based on 24 analysts' forecasts ahead of the results.

"They are standing on the edge," said Yuuki Sakurai, CEO and president of Fukoku Capital Management in Tokyo. "When I ride on the trains I see people using their smartphones to play games and people don't want to overlap their spending on other devices," he said.

Nintendo must consider providing games to these new platforms rather than focusing on new hardware, Sakurai added.

Nintendo also cut sales forecasts for its Wii home games console and the previous generation DS handheld device.

The Wii is facing harsh competition from rival Microsoft's Xbox, while many casual gamers are turning to devices like Apple's iPhone and iPad, rather than dedicated games gadgets.

JP Morgan cut its rating on the firm behind the Super Mario franchise to "underweight" from "overweight," saying the current situation was worse than feared and the outlook uncertain.

"The timing of the 3DS hardware price cut is surprising, given the major in-house software releases... We believe the 3DS will be a heavy weight on earnings over the medium term. The lack of a share buyback announcement is also disappointing," analyst Hiroshi Kamide said in a report.

STIFF COMPETITION

Shares of Sony Corp also fell on Friday, a day after the Japanese consumer electronics firm slashed its outlook for TV sales and cut its full-year net profit forecast to 60 billion yen from 80 billion yen.

Brokerage CLSA cut its rating of Sony to "underperform" from "outperform" and lowered its target share price to 2,150 yen from 2,430 yen, saying the downgrade reflected "the stronger headwinds from LCD panel and TV overcapacity as well as the strengthening yen."

Sony, the maker of Bravia TVs, slashed its annual forecast for LCD TVs to 22 million from 27 million and warned that annual losses in the division might widen from the previous year.

By midmorning Sony shares were down 2 percent at 1,973 yen, while the benchmark Nikkei was down 0.1 percent ($1 = 77.800 Japanese Yen)

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds, James Topham, Ayai Tomisawa, Mariko Katsumura and Tim Kelly; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Anshuman Daga)

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Sprint results disappoint, shares fall 20 percent

 

A woman talks on her phone as she walks past T-mobile and Sprint wireless stores in New York in this July 30, 2009 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

By Sinead Carew

NEW YORK | Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:50pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp's shares plunged nearly 20 percent on Thursday as heavy subscriber losses in the second quarter called into question the strategy and outlook of the No. 3 U.S. wireless company.

Sprint had spent heavily to promote its service and better compete against larger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. But that strategy backfired as profit margins eroded and customer losses persisted.

The weak results overshadowed Sprint's announcement of a $9 billion network contract with start-up LightSquared, and sent the stock tumbling to its lowest point since February before recovering a little to close down 16 percent.

Investors questioned whether Sprint would be able to meet its 2011 targets after such a disappointing performance.

"Their cost of doing business went up dramatically," said Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Larsen. "People have less confidence they can meet expectations."

Sprint's operating profit margin of 16.3 percent was well below the average Wall Street estimate of around 19 percent as the company had changed its product rebate terms in an effort to combat Verizon Wireless' sale of the Apple Inc iPhone, and an iPhone discount at AT&T.

But the bet did not pay off as Sprint still saw defections of 101,000 net subscribers -- also known as post-paid customers -- compared with analysts' expectation for losses of 15,000.

Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless added 1.3 million subscribers in the quarter and AT&T added 331,000 subscribers.

Chief Financial Officer Joe Euteneuer said Sprint made a "conscious decision" to spend more in the second quarter in the hope of avoiding getting "killed with market share."

"This was a unique quarter because of intense competition," he told analysts on a conference call.

Sprint warned the rate of customer defections would worsen this quarter, in line with typical third-quarter trends, but repeated a promise for subscriber growth in full-year 2011.

GUIDANCE DOUBTS

Chief Executive Dan Hesse said improvements in subscriber numbers in June gave him confidence the company could meet its targets for the rest of the year.

"If we continue at the current pace of improvement we will get there. The only way we won't is if performance deteriorates," Hesse told Reuters.

But analysts doubted if Sprint could meet its target for a 2011 operating profit that is roughly the same as in 2010.

"People are right to be skeptical," Pacific Crest analyst Steve Clement said. "They didn't point to any silver bullet."

Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett was also skeptical.

"Without post-paid subscriber growth, Sprint has little prospect of generating sustainable revenue growth, nor of generating sustainably rising margins," he said. "On those critical dimensions, Sprint's results were a clear disappointment."

Adding to the uncertainty, Sprint did not outline its plans to develop fourth-generation (4G) high-speed wireless services, and instead postponed that announcement to October.

Even news of the LightSquared deal failed to comfort investors, who questioned if they would ever see the fruits of that partnership because it is dependent on LightSquared solving difficult technology problems and raising money.

Under the agreement, LightSquared -- backed by hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital -- will pay Sprint $9 billion in cash over 11 years. Sprint also has the option to rent space on the LightSquared network through credits estimated to be worth $4.5 billion.

The news pushed Clearwire shares down 22 percent as Sprint is its majority owner and biggest customer. Sprint declined to comment when asked if it would continue to use Clearwire beyond its current agreement which expires in 2012.

"It's less clear that Sprint and Clearwire will have a long-term fruitful relationship," Larsen said.

Hesse said he would be in a position to give a clearer picture of Sprint's strategy on October 7.

"There are some new pieces to the puzzle that were unanticipated that will add strength and color to the story if we wait a little longer," Hesse said without giving details.

Sprint's loss widened to $847 million, or 28 cents per share, from $760 million, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding items such as losses from its Clearwire investment, Sprint's loss per share of 6 cents was better than Wall Street expectations for 12 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net operating revenue rose to $8.31 billion from $8.03 billion.

Sprint shares closed down 15.9 percent at $4.34 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Derek Caney, Maureen Bavdek and Richard Chang)

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