Sprint has confirmed the appointment of Marcelo Claure, the founder and CEO of mobile phone distributor Brightstar, as its new CEO. He will step down from Brightstar and take up the new job at Sprint from 11 August. Both Brightstar and Sprint are owned by Japan-based Softbank.
Claure, 43, already joined the Sprint board of directors in January. Sprint said his first priority as CEO will be to continue the build out of its network by leveraging its spectrum holdings as well as ensuring that Sprint maintains competitive offers in the market. "Marcelo is a successful entrepreneur who transformed a start-up into a global telecommunications company," said Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son. "He has the management experience, passion and drive to create the strongest network and offer the best products and services in the wireless industry."
Son did not comment directly on reports that Sprint has abandoned plans to bid for rival T-Mobile. He said the company still believes "industry consolidation will enhance competitiveness and benefit customers", while the "focus moving forward will be on making Sprint the most successful carrier". Calure said consolidation still "makes sense in the long term", but Sprint's focus for now will be on "becoming extremely cost efficient and competing aggressively in the marketplace".
Claure succeeds Dan Hesse, who served as Sprint CEO since late 2007. He led the company through a series of acquisitions, including the merger with SoftBank, and a multi-year overhaul of its nationwide network, including the shutdown of the Nextel network.
SoftBank also announced that it's acquiring Claure's remaining interest in Brightstar. Softbank agreed to buy the remaining 37.7 percent held by Claure in Brightstar Global Group, which owns 100 percent of Brightstar Corp, for USD 298 million.
