Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
I have to admit that I may have been wrong in my dour view of John Legere’s leadership style at T-Mobile US. I have questioned his outsized personality, his flair for pink T-shirts under black sports jackets and his Twitter obsession.
(I am also a bit worried about his Red Bull intake, as it can’t be good for a man of that age.)
But, this week I was reminded of why Legere acts the way he does as T-Mobile US ‘parent company Deutsche Telekom yet again announced to the world that its U.S. operations were on the market to one and all.
This for a wireless carrier that, despite its diminutive size and weak starting position when Legere was brought on board, has been handing it to its larger rivals in terms of attracting new, high-valued customers to its monthly billing system.
Yet, despite this tremendous accomplishment, DT is literally begging for someone (anyone!) to make it an offer it can’t refuse for T-Mobile US.
Legere just needs some validation in his life.
Someone to hug him.
Tell him that he is good.
Tell him that what he is doing is good.
But, all he gets from Bonn is: “good job, but not good enough.”
All that damn management at DT just seems to care about the money, and not about all the “crazy” Legere and company are putting out there. They are getting people like me who like crazy rich people to not like crazy rich people. That’s how crazy they are acting.
Sure, DT could still be smarting over the fact it overpaid for VoiceStream Wireless in 2001 in a deal that was originally valued at $50 billion, though eventually came in at around $35 billion after their corresponding stock prices plunged on the initial valuation. But, that was 14 years ago! And in that time T-Mobile US has been a significant financial driver (at times) for DT.
However, none of that seems to matter when green is more important than pink.
And, because of that, Legere has been forced to become the wild-and-crazy guy we see strutting on stage at T-Mobile US’ various “Un-carrier” events, crashing concerts put on by rival carriers and generally acting like a child starved for attention.
I figure at some point DT will get its wish and unload its U.S. operations (say to Softbank sometime after November 2016?). And at that point Legere will be freed from his current task of making T-Mobile US “buyable” and can hopefully use his newfound millions to purchase a quiet island somewhere and live a peaceful live.
But, until that time, I feel I need to lay off the Legere criticism as he is indeed in a most unenviable position of being driven to his manic state by a cold-hearted parent.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. Here is a quick, but satisfying extra:
– From the “where are they now” or maybe “where have they been” file, I recently received a nice invite to speak with Peter Adderton, who, for those that forget, was the founder of Boost Mobile and later Amp’d Mobile, and was a central figure to the booming (and busting) mobile virtual network operator business of the mid-2000s.
Adderton has returned as CEO at 360fly, a company looking to bring a single-lens, 360-degree camera to market. While the camera business is not really core to what we here at RCR Wireless News cover, I am quite looking forward to speaking with Adderton to get his views on the current mobile and MVNO space.
Look for that interview on the RCRwireless.com site soon.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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