TOKYO (AP) – Japanese telecommunications and Internet company SoftBank is reporting an 88 percent drop in fiscal third quarter profit as it struggles to turn around its U.S. carrier Sprint.
SoftBank Group Corp. reported Wednesday a 2.3 billion yen ($20 million) October-December profit, down from 18.7 billion yen the same period a year earlier.
As the first to offer the iPhone in Japan, SoftBank’s business in Japan is going strong, but it has faced a challenge with money-losing Sprint.
Sprint has promised to create a superior network, offer competitive prices and provide better services. The company based in Overland Park, Kansas, says it’s on track to cut $800 million in costs for fiscal 2015, having slashed 2,500 jobs since the fall, or 8 percent of its workforce.
But SoftBank did not give any full year projections. “Currently it is difficult to provide forecasts on the results in figures due to a large number of uncertain factors,” it said.