Gatecrashing a party hosted by a rival in the industry may not be a good idea especially if you're T-Mobile's chief executive crashing AT&T's party. That is, unless you have apparent intent to really get kicked out as a marketing stunt.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere gatecrashed business rival AT&T's opening party at the 2014 International CES but got booted out when he was discovered. Legere was kicked out of the event after CNET reporter Roger Cheng shared a photo of them together at the party's venue in Palms Las Vegas on Twitter. "Ran into @JohnLegere at the AT&T party. Yep, he crashed it. And still wearing the pink t-mo shirt. #CES2014," Cheng tweeted.
According to Cheng, he was on his way to AT&T's developer party when he met Legere and his entourage on their way to crashing the party. "Legere, wearing a leather jacket over his trademark pink T-Mobile T-shirt, was accompanied by an entourage, including Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter. Their goal: Crash AT&T's party and watch Macklemore and Ryan Lewis perform," Cheng wrote. "After getting in without any problems, Legere and I stopped to take a snapshot and I tweeted it out." After about 15 minutes of Cheng's tweet, security guards showed up and escorted Legere out of the premises. Legere and his companions may not have been invited at the bash but they got in through legitimate means as they reportedly secured passes through Macklemore's agent. The CEO later even said that all he wanted was to hear Macklemore who was performing at the event.
"All of a sudden these gigantic goons said 'Can I talk to you over here,'" Legere shared in an interview. He said that he was told he would be charged with trespassing if he didn't leave the premises immediately. A security guard later confirmed that AT&T reps claimed Legere was "harassing" party attendees.
Legere was very sporting about the entire turn of events and even tweeted about it.
Some, however, believe, it was all a publicity stunt for Legere and T-Mobile ahead of their announcement at the CES on Wednesday. Whatever Legere's intentions were, he had to see himself getting booted out given his treatment of AT&T on Twitter. Earlier, he called AT&T's promotional offer of $450 to T-Mobile customers willing to switch, a desperate move.
Don't miss the T-Mobile announcement on Wednesday at 12.30pm PST. It'll surely be something that'll make AT&T executives break out in a sweat.