(MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere will step down on May 1 to be replaced by his long-time deputy Mike Sievert, the company announced today.
"Today's news is the result of a comprehensive, multi-year succession planning process that is focused on ensuring a natural progression of the business," Legere said. "Mike has helped to build our incredible culture, and Mike is 100 percent committed to continuing the Un-carrier strategy. T-Mobile will continue to be a disruptive force in wireless and beyond."
Legere's departure is timed so he can see the T-Mobile/Sprint merger through—or rather, "we always expected the new T-Mobile to exist about six months ago," he said. The merger, now 18 months in the making, has been stalled by 15 state-level lawsuits charging it would reduce competition in wireless; those suits begin to go to trial on Dec. 9.
"Going into trial, we also understood … people would say, how do we know the Un-carrier strategy is going to continue? These are important components of why this deal should be approved. [Sievert] jointly, hand in hand, created and architected all of these Un-carrier moves," Legere said.
Legere himself isn't retiring. He will remain on T-Mobile's board, and is entertaining offers from companies looking for a similar transformation to the one that took T-Mobile from a laggard to a leader, he said.
"I've got at least 30 or 40 years and five or six good acts left in me," Legere said.
One company sounds out of the running, though. "I was never having discussions to run WeWork," he said.
Changing of the Guard
Legere's departure leaves two big holes in T-Mobile's executive lineup. Sievert is moving up from the COO role, and CFO Braxton Carter will be departing next summer, Legere said. The company is looking at internal and external candidates for the CFO job, Legere said.
In my mind, Sprint's Brandon "Dow" Draper now becomes a frontrunner for that COO position, if the merger closes. Most of Sprint's executive team consists of recently hired "caretakers" who haven't been with the company long and were essentially hired to shepherd the company through the sale.
The two standouts, however, are Chief Commercial Officer Draper and CTO John Saw, both of whom come from Clearwire, a home internet provider Sprint acquired in 2013. The company may be making room for Saw by promoting current CTO Neville Ray to "president of technology," a somewhat nebulous position that leaves space for a lateral move by Saw.
I've been speculating for a while that Saw may be put in charge of T-Mobile's upcoming home internet business. For what it's worth, I think Ray and Saw would work well together; they're both extreme geeks who take pleasure in creating new, consumer-friendly solutions out of oddball wireless technologies.
On the other hand, Draper has a $10 million golden parachute, according to the Kansas City Star.
The bigger question will be whether Sievert will continue T-Mobile's role as a disruptor in the industry even if the carrier merges with Sprint. Sievert was one of Legere's first hires, and has been with the current team since its inception. On the call, he and Legere pledged several times to continue with T-Mobile's disruptive strategy.
But while I've always found Sievert dynamic and charming, Legere is a unique character. Legere has 6.5 million Twitter followers compared to Sievert's 52,800. Legere calls himself "Batman" (including on today's call) and has a popular streaming show where he makes food in his slow cooker. He also did most of the talking on the call.
"When the time is appropriate, I'll be fielding offers from cable TV stations [for his cooking show]," Legere said. "One of these Sundays, I'm going to show up at Slow Cooker Sunday with a shirt on, and the shirt will say, YOUR LOGO HERE."