Overland Park ? The chief operating officer of Sprint Nextel Corp. left the company Monday and will not be replaced.

Len Lauer had been with the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier since 1998. He became president and chief operating officer of Sprint Corp. in September 2003 and became COO of Sprint Nextel after the August 2005 merger created the Reston, Va.-based company.

Lauer had been running Sprint Nextel operations in Overland Park, where Sprint was headquartered before the merger. He did not immediately return an answering machine message left at his home in the Kansas City suburb of Mission Hills.

The company said Monday that Gary Forsee, Sprint Nextel’s president and chief executive officer, will take over Lauer’s operating responsibilities.

“Len has been an important part of the Sprint team for the past eight years and provided strong leadership and counsel,” Forsee said. “We thank him for his many contributions and wish him well.”

Earlier this month, Sprint Nextel reported a 38 percent drop in quarterly earnings.

Its report also showed lower than expected new customer numbers and weak retention of existing customers for the second quarter.

Later that day, Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating on the company’s debt, citing both the poor showing and new plans to borrow money to buy back stock.

A week after that, the company agreed to pay almost $29 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by current and former employees who claimed their retirement accounts were degraded by being tied to the company’s stock.

“The decision behind the change was made as the company seeks to accelerate the pace of our transition and improve operational execution,” spokesman David Gunasegaram said Monday.