Sprint Nextel investors vote for special meetings

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Sprint Nextel Corp. shareholders on Tuesday approved a measure allowing stockholders to call special meetings.

The measure passed with more than 77 percent of the votes cast at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. It allows people owning 10 percent or more of Sprint’s outstanding shares to call a special meeting for any reason.

Shareholder William Steiner of New York had proposed the measure but didn’t attend the meeting. The Rev. Thom Belote of Overland Park, speaking for Steiner, said it would make the company more responsive.

“If shareholders cannot call special meetings, investor returns may suffer,” Belote said. “Shareholders should have the ability to call a special meeting when a matter is sufficiently important and requires prompt consideration.”

Company officials had opposed the measure as potentially expensive and time-consuming.

But following the vote, Chairman James Hance Jr. said the company “will take the necessary action to effect this.”

Investors rejected a second shareholder proposal that would have required the company to provide more disclosure on political contributions, with only 30 percent voting for it.

During the meeting, Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse told the roughly two dozen shareholders that the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier would continue to focus on improving customer service, rebuilding the brand’s image and protecting Sprint’s financial condition — the same priorities as last year.

“I think we’ve made a lot of progress this year,” Hesse said, although he acknowledged that Sprint still was losing millions of customers who sign annual contracts and generate the most revenue. “We need to do better and we are very focused on improving this weak area of performance.”

In response to an investor question, Hesse said he didn’t know that the company had stopped advertising through direct mail, unlike its competitors, until recently. He said those efforts were ended as a cost-cutting measure but would be restarted.

Sprint shares fell 5 cents to $5.36 in afternoon trading Tuesday.