Apparently when you reach an agreement to acquire a company partly owned by Ryan Reynolds, it’s a perfect opportunity to feature the actor in a video about the deal. At any rate, it’s an opportunity that the acquiring company — T-Mobile– seized upon.
The deal is a definitive agreement under which T-Mobile will acquire Ka’ena and its Mint Mobile, Ultra Mobile and Plum brands. Mint Mobile is a prepaid wireless service, Ultra Mobile offers “a unique wireless service offering international calling options” and Plum is a mobile wholesaler.
The video with Ryan Reynolds is evidence that the flippant marketing attitude shared by Mint and T-Mobile will continue.
In it, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert welcomes Mint to the T-Mobile family, to which Reynolds says, “I wouldn’t call it a family. A family is a place for misdirected hopes and dreams. This is much better.”
T-Mobile will pay a maximum of $1.35 billion in a combination of 39% cash and 61% stock. The precise price will be determined by Ka’ena’s performance during specified periods before and after the deal closes, which is expected later this year.
In the video, Reynolds notes that T-Mobile is a long-time partner.
“Mint has run on the T-Mobile network since its inception,” Reynolds said. “The reason people have such great experience with Mint is due to T-Mobile, especially its unrivaled lead in 5G.”
T-Mobile plans to continue Mint’s signature $15 per month pricing.
Plans also include enlarging the device inventory and bringing the service to new customer segments and geographies. Mint and Ultra are complementary to Metro by T-Mobile and Connect by T-Mobile prepaid services, according to a press release.
The Mint Mobile offering joins existing prepaid services Metro by T-Mobile and Connect by T-Mobile, but according to today’s press release, the services are “complementary.”
There has been considerable shuffling in the prepaid market in recent years.
In July 2019, the Department of Justice and the attorneys general of five states approved the merger on the condition that Sprint sell Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and its spectrum holdings in the 800 MHz band to Dish.
They did so about a year later.
