T-Mobile chief executive John J. Legere has never been known for his being tactful about his company's competitors. Still, during the nine-month-period during which T-Mobile was negotiating with Sprint for a $30 billion acquisition, Legere seemed particularly discreet about what he thinks of the third largest mobile carrier in the United States.
But with Sprint officially dropping its pursuit of T-Mobile, Legere finally unleashes his fury on Sprint with a Twitter tongue-lashing.
"You know one word that will never be a scrabble word? Framily," he said on Tuesday, August 5, the day the first rumors of Sprint changing its mind about its T-Mobile buyout first surfaced. He was referring to Sprint's Framily line of mobile plans, which has failed to attract a loyal user base. But that was only the first of a series of posts in Legere's public smackdown of Sprint.
"If you needed just one more reason to leave Sprint and join T-Mobile... Now you might just have it... Total Chaos at Sprint! #sprintlikehell," said Legere's post on Wednesday.
"Is Sprint a melting ice cube?... Looks like it to me... Join the cool brand NOW! #T-Mobile #Unleash," Legere said on the same day. His tirade continued with two more posts:
If you’re a @sprint customer, you’re in the middle of a #framilyfued and it’s time to up and go! To @TMobile… #hadto
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) August 6, 2014
Join T-Mobile now and jump off the Sprint bus before it crashes! #framily #unleash — John Legere (@JohnLegere) August 6, 2014
Of course, T-Mobile's outspoken chief executive was not letting up on Marcelo Claure, Sprint's days-old chief executive who was installed as a replacement for Daniel Hesse.
"Looks like @sprint has a new #framily member... and he's got a lot of framily therapy to do, asap. #justsayin," Legere, whose name is pronounced as "ledger," posted, obviously referring to Sprint's new head.
Pro-tip for @marceloclaure, tell people how to pronounce your name now... #leegair!?
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) August 6, 2014
"You could wait to find out what the #framily is going to do, or you could go with what works - @TMobile. #uncarrier," said Legere in his last Sprint-bashing post of the day.
If there is one proof that the Sprint-T-Mobile deal is truly gone for good, this is it. Legere's tweets not only show that Sprint and T-Mobile are rivals once again but also demonstrates a reversal of roles for the nation's third and fourth largest carriers, although T-Mobile would be quick to correct anyone who refers to it as a carrier, as its brand rests largely on its image as the un-carrier.
T-Mobile was once an insignificant player in the mobile industry before Legere took over and introduced aggressive marketing strategies, such as the elimination of two-year contracts and plan termination fees to encourage customers to switch over. These strategies have, so far, paid off for T-Mobile, which gained 908,000 new customers in the second quarter of 2014, while Sprint lost 245,000 customers in the same period.
For all his swagger, however, Legere admits T-Mobile may need to merge with a bigger company to compete with the likes of Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
"If I really want to bring long-term competition and lead this entire industry, capital is important," he says (video). "One of the accelerants could be a transaction."
