Overland Park ? Once again, talk of layoffs and an uncertain future is swirling around Sprint Corp., in response to the company’s $35 billion acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc.

While the leaders of the two companies have acknowledged that layoffs will occur, they said Thursday that the newly created company would grow enough to eventually require more workers. Analysts, however, were skeptical, saying the new company would have to drastically reduce employees to survive in the ruthlessly competitive telecommunications industry.

If approved, the combination would create a company called Sprint Nextel with 35 million wireless subscribers and a combined $40 billion in annual revenues, the third-largest wireless business behind Cingular and Verizon.

Gary Forsee, chairman and chief executive officer of Sprint, and Timothy Donahue, president and CEO of Nextel, met with employees Thursday at the companies’ respective headquarters in Overland Park and Reston, Va.

“Today’s message to employees was about the growth opportunities created because of the vision Sprint and Nextel both have about the importance of wireless,” Forsee said at a news conference in Overland Park.

He said the transition will require “adjustments” to reduce overlapping functions, “but we’re going to be growing our organization and finding ways and opportunities for our employees to find positions along the way.”

Analysts weren’t buying that argument.

“The only way for them to survive is to be lean and mean,” said Greg Gorbatenko, with Marquis Investment Research. “They have to be focused on growing the margins. If they’re not, Verizon and Cingular will eat their lunch. Reduction in force is the only way to do that.”

Uncertainty is nothing new at Sprint, which as been roiled by controversy and layoffs since 2000, when it called off a proposed sale to MCI WorldCom because of questions from federal regulators. Sprint has laid off 26,000 employees in the last three years and in 2003 survived a chaotic management shake-up when former CEO William Esrey and chief operating officer Ron LeMay were forced out because of controversy over personal tax shelters.

Jeff Kagan, an analyst in Atlanta, said uncertainty would continue for the foreseeable future in the telecom industry.

“This is not just a Sprint or Nextel issue,” Kagan said. “The industry has too many companies. It’s not going to need as many people. It’s good, at least from a company perspective. The reorganization of the industry is going to make it more profitable.”

Forsee and Donahue insisted Thursday that the future is bright for the new company.

“The bottom line here is these two companies coming together as one large company able to compete fiercely with the other large players in the marketplace,” Donahue said. “Given the growth of wireless that’s expected in the next five to 10 years, there will be significant opportunities for employees on both sides of the merger.”

Predicting the future of telecom is pointless, Gorbatenko said.

“I guess you never say never,” he said. “But the only reason this merger makes sense is because it gives them an economy of scale. And the only way to get the benefits of that is to go ahead and cut work force. That’s what’s going to happen.”

Kagan said the telecom industry was reinventing itself and that would mean layoffs in the next one or two years, possibly followed by expansions by the companies that survive.

“I expect if you go out about five years, the marketplace is going to be healthier and the employment rolls are going to be bigger. It’s just that we don’t know which companies those employees will be working for.”