Jeff Kagan examines Sprint’s merger with T-Mobile and what it means for the joint company moving forward. The article posted to RCRWireless in July 2020 explores Sprint’s history, what they did right and wrong that led us to this moment in wireless history and closes with a look at the next steps for T-Mobile…
Past Sprint CEOs: Bill Esrey, Gary Forsee and Dan Hesse
Bill Esrey was CEO of Sprint when it was in the long distance business and changed over to wireless. The company was popular, but just could not hold a candle to AT&T and Verizon. In fact, that was the cases throughout Sprint’s long history.
When the company needed fresh vision, they hired Gary Forsee as CEO. Forsee came from Bell South, one of the seven Baby Bells. He acquired Nextel just before the entire industry switched from analog to digital.
That move was the death nell for Nextel. And what started out looking like a great move became an albatross around their neck for Sprint Nextel for years to come.
Dan Hesse did a remarkable job saving then growing Sprint
Now, the company was in even deeper trouble. That’s when they hired Dan Hesse as CEO. Hesse came from AT&T. He had been with the company forever. He ran the AT&T wireless business for several years.
When Hesse came to Sprint it was dying on the vine showing huge losses with no light at the end of the tunnel.
What was amazing is Hesse saved Sprint from disaster. He worked hand in hand with the Sprint executives, workers, investors and customers. First, they first stabilized and then grew the business once again.
In fact, Sprint was winning all sorts of quality and reliability awards and it looked like they were finally on a winning path under Hesse.