STAYED FOR THE WEDDING AND THEN DEPARTED — A six year on and off again courtship has been officially wed by a $26.5 billion agreement, T-Mobile announced this morning. The merger also marks an early end of the planned transition period from outgoing CEO John Legere, left, the very public face of T-Mobile, to Mike Sievert. Sprint’s CEO Marcelo Claure, at right, and Legere were the driving forces in getting the deal done that a few analysts were convinced would never happen.
T-Mobile announced this morning that it has officially completed its $26.5 billion merger with Sprint to create, what they are calling “a supercharged un-carrier that will deliver a transformative 5G network”.
The enhanced scale and financial strength of the combined company will drive a planned investment of $40 billion into its network, business and more over the next three years. Synergies achieved from the integration have the potential to unlock massive scale and unleash at least $43 billion in value for shareholders, the carrier said in a press statement.
The company also announced that with the close of the merger, it has successfully completed its long-planned Chief Executive Officer transition from John Legere to Mike Sievert ahead of schedule. Effective immediately, Sievert will assume the role of CEO of T-Mobile.
Legere, who served as CEO of T-Mobile since 2012, built a culture around listening to employees, putting the customer first and shaking up the market with signature Un-carrier moves. During his tenure, Legere engineered a turnaround of the company as T-Mobile completely disrupted the wireless industry and became the fastest growing company in wireless, capturing 80% of the industry’s postpaid phone growth from 2013 to today. Legere will continue as a member of the Board of Directors for the remainder of his current term, through the Annual Meeting of Shareholders scheduled in June 2020.
“During this extraordinary time, it has become abundantly clear how vital a strong and reliable network is to the world we live in. The New T-Mobile’s commitment to delivering a transformative broad and deep nationwide 5G network is more important and more needed than ever and what we are building is mission-critical for consumers,” said Mike Sievert, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “With this powerful network, the New T-Mobile will deliver real choice and value to wireless and home broadband customers and double down on all the things customers have always loved about the Un-carrier. T-Mobile has been changing wireless for good — and now we are going to do it on a whole new level!”
“The Un-carrier movement started with T-Mobile saying we were going to shake up wireless — and we did! We eliminated annual service contracts, overages and roaming fees, improved customer service and introduced more value. But there’s more. In the best and worst of times, T-Mobile has been here with a dependable network and giving customers best-in-class customer service they can depend on. Today, when those connections are needed more than ever, we are reinforcing everything we’ve stood for as the supercharged New T-Mobile!” said John Legere. “You know T-Mobile has been all about challenging the status quo … and Sprint has a track record of being a tenacious challenger and a dedicated customer advocate as well. So, with innovation, disruption and obsession for the customer experience as the foundation that the New T-Mobile is built on, just imagine what’s to come.”
Legere continued, “I’ve been fortunate enough to lead this company for the past seven years, but now it’s time for me to hand the reins over to Mike Sievert. The Board of Directors and I agree that it makes perfect sense for Mike to assume his leadership role on day one of the new company. He’s ready! I had originally planned to stay on through the end of my contract on April 30, 2020, but it makes much more sense to transition this responsibility to Mike today. Mike was the first person I hired at T-Mobile and I have tremendous faith in his ability to take the Un-carrier into its next supercharged chapter. Between his leadership, his expanded and talented leadership team and the amazing people at T-Mobile, the future is so bright! The Un-carrier that we created started with our employees. Each and every one of them. They are different. They play the game differently, and I love them all. I cannot wait to see what this entire team does next!”
The company said:
- The network will have 14 times more capacity in the next six years than T-Mobile alone has today, enabling the New T-Mobile to leapfrog the competition in network capability and experience.
- Customers will have access to average 5G speeds up to eight times faster than current LTE in just a few years and 15 times faster over the next six years.
- Within six years, the New T-Mobile will provide 5G to 99% of the U.S. population and average 5G speeds in excess of 100 Mbps to 90% of the U.S. population.
- New T-Mobile’s business plan is built on covering 90% of rural Americans with average 5G speeds of 50 Mbps, up to two times faster than broadband on average.