Kansas City, Mo. ? Sprint Corp. expects the reunion of its wireline and wireless tracking stocks into a single common stock to reduce earnings between 2 cents and 3 cents per share, the company’s chief financial officer said Wednesday.

The company’s free cash will be reduced by $200 million in 2004 and by $300 million in 2005 as Sprint begins paying its quarterly dividend on the millions of additional shares that will be issued in exchange for the soon-to-be discontinued wireless stock, CFO Bob Dellinger told industry analysts at a meeting in New York.

Sprint announced Sunday it would eliminate its PCS wireless tracking stock by exchanging PCS shares for new shares of the FON stock that currently represents the company’s traditional residential phone business and other “wired” services.

Each share of the PCS tracker, created in 1998, is to be converted into one-half share of FON common stock April 23. Sprint plans to continue paying the same quarterly dividend of 12.5 cents on all FON shares.

The reduction in earnings consists of about 2 cents per share in stock-based compensation related to the exchange of Sprint FON shares for Sprint PCS shares, and less than a penny per share for fees that will be paid to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. for advising the company on the transaction.

Despite the hit to earnings, Dellinger reiterated the company’s previous projection for earnings of 70 cents to 75 cents a share in 2004 and $1.05 to $1.15 in 2005.