T-Mobile CEO Set To Hand Over Reins Next Year -- WSJ
November 19 2019 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Drew FitzGerald
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (November 19, 2019).
T-Mobile US Inc. said Chief Executive John Legere will step down
this spring, handing the top job to operating chief Mike
Sievert.
Mr. Sievert, 50 years old, will become chief executive on May 1,
taking over after Mr. Legere's current employment contract expires.
The company said Mr. Legere will remain a director.
T-Mobile faces a litany of challenges before then, including an
antitrust lawsuit brought by a coalition of state attorneys general
against T-Mobile's planned $26 billion-plus takeover of Sprint
Corp. A trial is scheduled to start Dec. 9 in New York.
"The timing was always expected to be now, but we always
expected the new T-Mobile to exist about six months ago," Mr.
Legere said Monday in a conference call.
Mr. Legere's planned departure caps a seven-year stretch at the
Bellevue, Wash., carrier, where he turned a struggling also-ran
into the third-largest U.S. carrier, largely by luring customers
away from bigger rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications
Inc. The company has grown its customer base while Sprint has
faltered.
The change comes after the Journal reported that Mr. Legere was
in negotiations to take over as chief executive of We Cos., the
parent of WeWork. We investor SoftBank Group Corp. has been looking
for a leader to succeed founder Adam Neumann.
Mr. Legere, 61, said Monday he was "never having discussions to
run WeWork" but made it clear he was contemplating his next act at
another company.
"I'm not retiring," he said. "I'm already getting a tremendous
amount of input of companies that could use cultural
transformation, leadership and things similar to what we've
demonstrated here."
The handover was carefully planned. T-Mobile positioned Mr.
Sievert to take on more responsibilities in recent years. He was
named chief operating officer and joined its board in early 2018.
T-Mobile is controlled by Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany's incumbent
carrier.
Mr. Sievert joined T-Mobile in 2013 after stints at Microsoft
Corp.'s Windows software division and at Clearwire Corp., a
struggling wireless broadband service that later merged with
Sprint.
The company also said current Chief Financial Officer Braxton
Carter extended his contract through at least July 1. His previous
contract was slated to expire Dec. 31.
T-Mobile's share price is up roughly 240% since Mr. Legere
became CEO in September 2012, compared with a 114% gain in the
S&P 500 index over that same period. The stock slipped 1% in
Monday morning trading.
Mr. Legere's compensation package totaled $66.5 million last
year, and he was eligible to receive as much as $109 million if the
company met certain performance targets. When T-Mobile struck the
merger deal with Sprint, it also extended Mr. Legere's employment
contract through April 30, 2020.
T-Mobile's proposed takeover of Sprint has secured approval from
federal telecommunications and antitrust officials, but it has been
delayed by the states' antitrust suit. The company earlier this
month promised a $15-a-month data plan aimed at responding to
criticism that its merger with Sprint would lessen competition.
When T-Mobile announced that and other consumer-friendly
pledges, Messrs. Legere and Sievert shared the stage.
Write to Drew FitzGerald at andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 19, 2019 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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