Sprint Board fires CEO for being a WiMax lover; Wateen CEO reportedly cringes
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The Sprint-Nextel Board of Directors have decided to replace current CEO Gary Foresee because they’re apparently pretty unhappy with his massive investments in Sprint’s WiMax implementation. So far, Sprint’s WiMax implementation is the largest WiMax infrastructure effort in the US – probably the world – and is designed to support 125 million users. The softlaunch was expected sometime later this year. No news yet on how the top level changes are going to affect the launch date.
In one reaction to this news, ClearWire Corp, Sprint’s primary partner on the WiMax project, took an absolute battering on the ‘Street. Investors jettisoned their holdings leaving the stock down 13% at last count. But here’s my question: If the Sprint CEO is going to get fired simply for going the WiMax route and investing huge amounts in the implementation, what about the Wateen CEO? He did all the above but then added the dubious honours of being late, AND failing with his WiMax marketing and customer acquisition efforts. What about him?
It seems Foresee is also aware that the Universe may be acting unfairly towards him. He is apparently pretty upset and when told about the Board’s decision, he is rumoured to have cried and said, “Mein nahien bolta, aap logo’n ko to siraf mein hi bura nazar aata hou’n! Wateen kay CEO kay Ami/Abu to us ko kuch nahien kehtay!” [NOTE: This rumour is unconfirmed.] Hush, hush now, Gary. Sadly, life is not fair!

