Mint Mobile’s network was already provided by T-Mobile. Now, the company will own it, along with Ultra Mobile and Plum, once the deal is finalised.
T-Mobile is buying Mint Mobile, a cheap cell phone service that Ryan Reynolds has a stake in. T-Mobile said in a blog post on Wednesday that the deal is worth up to $1.35 billion and is part of its plan to expand its prepaid phone service.
The purchase of Mint’s parent company, Ka’ena Corporation, will be paid for with 39 percent cash and 61 percent stock. The deal should close later this year. The price could change, though, based on how well Mint does.
Once the deal is done, Mint’s founders, David Glickman and Rizwan Kassim, will join T-Mobile to continue running the brand, which T-Mobile says “will generally operate as a separate business unit.” Reynolds will also stay a part of the Mint brand, according to T-Mobile, which says he will “continue in his creative role on behalf of Mint.”
Reynolds said in a tweet, “I never thought I’d own a wireless company, and I certainly never thought I’d sell it to T-Mobile.” “Life is strange, and I’m very happy and proud of it.”
In a YouTube video shared on Wednesday, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said that the cheapest phone plan from Mint will still cost $15 per month. The deal also includes Ultra Mobile, a prepaid service that lets you call internationally, and Plum, a wholesale wireless solutions provider, which are both owned by Ka’ena.
T-Mobile may be able to get back some of the customers it lost when it sold Boost Mobile.
Reynolds first got a piece of Mint in 2019 and has been the brand’s representative ever since. Mint is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that already uses T-Mobile’s network to offer cheap prepaid plans. By buying Mint, T-Mobile may be trying to get back the users it lost when it sold Boost Mobile to Dish as part of its merger with Sprint.
Sievert says, “In the long run, we’ll also benefit from using the marketing strategy that has made Mint famous in more parts of T-Mobile.” “We think that customers will really benefit from a more competitive and bigger Mint and Ultra.”
This is by no means the first business that T-Mobile has bought. Bloomberg said that T-Mobile started to think about buying Mint Mobile in January. Over the past few years, T-Mobile has bought out some of its competitors. It bought MetroPCS in 2013 and, most importantly, said that it would join with Sprint for $26 billion in 2018.
Before the deal could go through in 2020, regulators had a lot of questions about the merger. Even after the merger was completed, it was still criticised. California regulators said that T-Mobile had lied to get the deal passed, and a report from The Wall Street Journal in 2021 said that the merger had actually cut jobs, not added them as had been promised. Also, T-Mobile has had several data breaches and hacks over the years, which isn’t exactly reassuring for Mint users who will soon be under T-Mobile’s care.
