T-Mobile CEO John Legere bleeds magenta, and the trademark color of the Bellevue, Wash.-based wireless carrier won’t be going anywhere if its mega merger with Sprint goes through. At least that’s the word from Legere.
“We’ll still be called T-Mobile, we’ll still be magenta, I’ll still be your leader, and we’ll continue to be customer obsessed!” Legere wrote in an email to employees obtained by GeekWire. (See full memo below).
In a blockbuster announcement Sunday morning, T-Mobile released plans to merge with Sprint, a deal that will value the combined company at $146 billion and give it 127 million total retail and wholesale customers. That’s just behind rivals Verizon, with an estimated 150 million customers, and AT&T, which boasts 141 million customers, according to Strategy Analytics data reported by Fierce Wireless.
Using a multitude of exclamation points throughout the memo (14 by our count), the high-energy Legere stressed that the new T-Mobile will be “bigger & better.”
“As a larger, stronger, better-scaled competitor we’ll strive to deliver an incredible set of services to consumers and businesses at lower prices than ever before,” Legere wrote. “We’ll drive broader, better competition in the rapidly converging content and communications marketplace, including traditional wireless, in-home broadband, entertainment & beyond. And, we’ll bring REAL wireless choices and mobile broadband competition to Americans in rural areas for the first time.”
[Follow-up: T-Mobile HQ2: Sprint merger to give Seattle-area company a ‘second headquarters’ in Kansas]
Full memo here:
Team,
I’ve got some incredible news to share, and I wanted to be the first one to reach out and make it official! Today marks a huge step forward for ALL of us as we prepare to take the Un-carrier revolution to a whole new level!
We just announced that T-Mobile and Sprint have reached a definitive agreement to come together and form a new, bigger, stronger company! Yep. You read that right, we are merging with Sprint. If you want to know how excited Mike and I are about this – check out our video here…
This combination sets us up to SUPERCHARGE the Un-carrier and to quickly deliver the only Nationwide 5G network with BOTH the breadth and depth needed to offer the kind of capacity and performance that American consumers want and need in the 5G era!
We’ll still be called T-Mobile, we’ll still be magenta, I’ll still be your leader, and we’ll continue to be customer obsessed! I’m also excited to share that Mike Sievert will be the President and COO of the New T-Mobile, and we are making big plans to innovate and drive this business forward just like we always have.
Trust me when I say that this is the deal we have been waiting for, and this is the combination that will take everything to a new level!
We think that ONLY the New T-Mobile can quickly deliver a NATIONWIDE 5G NETWORK with the capacity and scale to truly accelerate innovation and increase competition in the U.S., and we plan to make that a reality! Leading early in nationwide 5G will result in leadership for the country in the digital economy, and it will drive a giant wave of U.S. innovation and disruption that we believe will benefit customers with lower prices, better service and innovative applications.
New T-Mobile will absolutely SUPERCHARGE the pro consumer Un-carrier strategy! As a larger, stronger, better-scaled competitor we’ll strive to deliver an incredible set of services to consumers and businesses at lower prices than ever before. We’ll drive broader, better competition in the rapidly converging content and communications marketplace, including traditional wireless, in-home broadband, entertainment & beyond. And, we’ll bring REAL wireless choices and mobile broadband competition to Americans in rural areas for the first time.
The New T-Mobile will CREATE JOBS and be a driver of investment and the U.S. economy! We expect to create thousands of jobs – well beyond what the two companies could do by themselves – by bringing T-Mobile’s world-class customer care to Sprint customers, by hiring employees to merge networks and build out our 5G network and systems and by investing in new businesses.
But let me say this… it is YOUR hard work and efforts over the past 5 years that has put our company in the position to make this deal happen – so THANK YOU! T-Mobile is going to be even BIGGER & BETTER than you ever imagined!
This will take time.
As is typical of any merger, this deal has to go through all the standard regulatory review processes which will take a while. We are optimistic this will clear regulators but nothing is ever guaranteed, so as excited as you all are – please continue to focus on doing exactly what you have been doing for the past 5 years… Listen to our customers and do what they tell you. It is the success that you have all delivered that has gotten us this far – so don’t stop now!
We’ll keep you updated on the process and timelines as we go. And you can check out T-Nation to get the latest information and resources anytime. We’ve also launched a site externally for people who want to learn more about the deal here.
Today’s news is about taking this fight – on behalf of consumers – to the next level and beyond! The next wave of mobile is too important not to fight for and now we are positioned to accelerate that fight for consumers everywhere!
Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and the others better watch out because…We. Are. Coming.
And…We. Won’t. Stop.
Don’t miss our webcast tomorrow at 10:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM ET to hear more. Invite to follow.
You can hear all about the agreement from Marcelo and I here.
