‘8,000 jobs coming to US’

INVESTMENT: Sprint and OneWeb say positions part of earlier SoftBank pledge

UNITED States president-elect Donald Trump said on Wednesday telecommunications group Sprint Corp and a US satellite company OneWeb will bring 8,000 jobs to the US, and the companies said the positions are part of a previously disclosed pledge by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.

SoftBank holds stakes in both companies and its chief, billionaire businessman Masayoshi Son, said earlier this month he would invest US$50 billion (RM224.2 billion) in the US and create 50,000 jobs.

Sprint said earlier in January it had cut 2,500 jobs as part of its plan to trim US$2.5 billion in costs. On Wednesday, it said it would create 5,000 jobs in areas including sales and customer care by the end of its fiscal year ending March 2018.

Sprint spokesman Dave Tovar said the jobs were part of the pledge made by Son but would be funded by Sprint.

Trump first made the announcement at his luxury Florida resort Mar-a-Lago, telling reporters that Sprint called him with the news.

“We just had some very good news. Because of what is happening and the spirit and the hope, I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they are going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the US. They have taken them from other countries.”

Sprint, owned mostly by Japan’s SoftBank, which already has announced a commitment to major US investments, released its statement nearly an hour later, clarifying that not all the jobs would come from overseas.

Sprint announced a “commitment to create or bring back to America 5,000 jobs” although it has no specific plans yet.

“We are excited to work with Trump and his administration to do our part to drive economic growth and create jobs in the US,” said Sprint chief executive officer Marcelo Claure in a statement.

SoftBank and OneWeb had announced on December 19 that the Japanese company was leading a US$1.2 billion funding round.

OneWeb plans to use the funds to build a plant in Florida to produce low-cost satellites, creating almost 3,000 jobs at the company and its suppliers.

SoftBank described its US$1 billion share of the funding as the first tranche of the US$50 billion promised by Son in a meeting with Trump. Agencies