Kansas City, Mo. ? Sprint Corp.’s fourth-quarter earnings dipped to $38 million, but both its wired and wireless telephone businesses topped expectations. The report Tuesday came a day before Sprint was expected to announce a deal to outsource at least 5,000 jobs to IBM.

The results for the October-December period compared with a combined profit of $39 million for the wireline and wireless units in the final quarter of 2002. Combined revenue rose to $6.68 billion for the quarter compared to $6.54 billion a year earlier.

The outsourcing deal, expected to be announced today, will transfer about 8 percent of Sprint’s work force, or between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs, to the payroll of IBM, analysts briefed by one or both of the companies told The Associated Press.

The deal also calls for IBM to sell Sprint services to IBM’s customers, analysts said.

Most the jobs are expected to come from the customer service operations of the cell phone business, Sprint PCS.

Sprint and IBM refused to comment on the outsourcing plan.

“We’re going to be outlining our strategies at our investment community meeting tomorrow,” spokesman Scott Stoffel said. The meeting is in New York City.

Industry analyst Jeff Kagan said the agreement, expected to save Sprint $2 billion to $3 billion during several years, also should help the company improve customer service.

In the earnings report, Sprint said its wireline division, known as Sprint FON, earned $360 million, or 40 cents per share, during the fourth quarter, up from $294 million, or 33 cents per share, during the previous year. Its revenue slipped to $3.54 billion from $3.67 billion during the fourth quarter of 2002.

Sprint PCS’s fourth-quarter loss widened to $322 million, or 31 cents per share, compared with a loss of $255 million, or 25 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenues totaled $3.31 billion, up from $3.05 billion in the year-ago period.

Shares of Sprint FON were down 5 cents to close Tuesday at $17.95 on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of Sprint PCS were down 11 cents to close at $8.13.