Ahead of the Bell: Sprint shares jump on $87 million Softbank investment

Shares of wireless provider Sprint Corp. jumped 4 percent in premarket trading after Softbank, a Japanese telecommunications and Internet-services company, said it took an additional $87 million stake in the company.

Softbank bought a 78 percent majority stake in Sprint in 2013 for $21.6 billion. It has been cutting jobs and trying to shore up profit at the wireless carrier since then.

Softbank brought 22.8 million additional shares between Monday and Wednesday for $87 million.

The additional shares bring Softbank's stake in Sprint to about 80 percent. Softbank said it doesn't intend to take a stake any higher than 85 percent as a result of the new stock buys.

The news comes after Sprint last week reported a smaller-than-anticipated loss in its fiscal first quarter as it added new customers and fewer existing customers left its postpaid business.

Shares of Sprint rose 16 cents, or 4.1 percent, to $4.04 during premarket trading.