Sprint reports widening loss of $594 million in Q1 but beats Wall Street

Sprint has reported a loss of $594 million, or 21 cents per share for the first quarter 2009, a decline of 18 percent compared to a loss of $505 million in the year ago period.

When taking out severance and exit costs associated with a significant reduction in its workforce, the company's adjusted EPS was a 3 cents per share profit in the first quarter, beating analyst expectations of a 5 cent per share loss.

The company lost 182,000 wireless customers, bringing its total customer base to 49.1 million. It was hit hardest by a loss of 1.25 million postpaid customers. Analysts speculate that those customers went to other carriers like Verizon and AT&T.

The company's losses continued to widen in the first quarter even after announcing that it would exclusively carry the Palm Pre, a highly anticipated smartphone.