Nextel Communications Inc, the mobile-phone company controlled by Craig McCaw, named Paul Saleh as chief financial officer, replacing John Brittain, who will remain vice president and treasurer.
Saleh had been chief financial officer at Walt Disney International. Before that, he worked at Honeywell Corp. in financial roles, Nextel said in a statement.
Brittain became acting chief financial officer at Nextel in December 2000, when then-CFO Steven Shindler become chief executive at Nextel International. Brittain raised more than US$15 billion for the company during his tenure, the statement said.
Nextel scrapped plans for an initial public offering for Nextel International in March, as telecom stocks plunged.
"He's done a good job of raising money, but they've had some struggles on the finance side," said Sean Butson, an analyst with Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc., who rates Nextel a "strong buy."
"The last 12 months have been pretty tumultuous." Nextel said in May it would cut 800 jobs, or five percent of its US workforce, to reduce costs.
"Disney is known for having a fairly good management team, and [Saleh's] international experience may help as they try to figure out what to do with the international division,'' said Butson, who rates Nextel "strong buy."
Legg Mason doesn't do any investment banking for Nextel.
Butson said he owns Nextel shares that he purchased three or four years ago and hasn't sold.
Nextel also named Mark Angelino as senior vice president of sales operations, and hired Gary Cohen as vice president of enterprise market solutions. Angelino had worked at International Business Machines Corp, while Cohen worked at IBM and later Scient Corp, an Internet consulting firm. In April, IBM's Jim Mooney joined Nextel as its chief operating officer.
Mooney has been able to boost the amount of business Nextel gets from existing accounts, Butson said.
The company is now getting about 35 percent of its new subscribers from existing customers, compared with a percentage in the 20s earlier this year, he said.
Earlier, Nextel said it expects third-quarter US customer growth and cash flow to exceed second-quarter levels. Nextel shares rose US$0.56 to US$10.60 on Friday. They have fallen 80 percent in the past 12 months.
The company disclosed its personnel changes after the close of regular US trading, and shares climbed as high as US$10.70 after hours.
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