As we’ve discussed before, Ryan Reynolds has many businesses to keep his family afloat for a few lifetimes. He either owns, partners or has a vested interest in several lucrative deals and credit to him, he’s gotten in on the ground floor of some smart choices. He also cuts bait at the right time, too. I’m not implying that his business fail, but he knows when to accept the right offer. Like when he sold Aviation Gin for $610M two years after investing in it. Well, he’s one-upped himself by selling off his minority ownership of Mint Mobile to T-Mobile to the tune of $1.35 billion.
Ryan Reynolds‘ Mint Mobile has just been acquired.
The 46-year-old Deadpool actor released a video sharing that his company, of which he is a minority owner, has been acquired by T-Mobile in a deal valued at up to $1.35 billion.
“Mint Mobile is the best deal in wireless and today’s news only enhances our ability to deliver for our customers,” Ryan said in a statement Wednesday.
“We are so happy T-Mobile beat out an aggressive last-minute bid from my mom Tammy Reynolds as we believe the excellence of their 5G network will provide a better strategic fit than my mom’s slightly-above-average mahjong skills. I am so proud of the entire Mint team and so excited for what’s to come,” Ryan joked.
In the announcement, which I posted below, T-Mobile’s Mike Sievert and Ryan let customers know that Mint has run on the T-Mobile network since its inception. So they assure everyone who likes Mint that nothing will change, including pricing and customer service. I’m not sure I’d buy that if I was a Mint patron. Folks don’t spend over a billion dollars without a motive. Those numbers, man – after a while they just don’t seem real. Since I am currently working on my 1040s, my first thought was how that was going to affect his taxes. But I don’t think billionaires have to worry about things like that. I don’t use either company so I don’t know if I should be consoling people or congratulating them right now. I can congratulate Ryan, certainly. That’s a nice chunk of change to pocket. I wonder if Blake told him that if he wanted to sink any more money into his Wrexham Football Club, he was going to have to sell off one of his toys to do so. I don’t blame her… or him. I won’t go into details in case Welcome to Wrexham airs season two.
Here’s the announcement. It’s typical Ryan cuteness. I enjoyed it, and Mike does a pretty good job meeting Ryan at his irreverence. But this merger might actually worry some folks. I wonder if this silly little back and forth is enough to assure Mint users or are people sorry they trusted Deadpool with their wireless needs about now?
I only want the best for Mint Mobile customers. Think I’ve found it. pic.twitter.com/nSNmGKLmN2
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 15, 2023
This is Ryan and his mom Tammy
“So you think I should sell to Virgin Mobile instead of T-Mobile?”
Photo credit: Cover Images, Twitter, Instagram and Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon
That’s was pretty funny. Let’s hope the acquisition leads to the lowering of T-Mobile’s prices to come close to matching Mint’s.
Hope this means no more of the stupid Mint commercials.
I use Mint Mobile. I’ve loved paying $100 every three months for an unlimited data plan as opposed to paying $70+ a month with almost any other provider.
I do not like the news of this sale. I wonder if I should start looking for alternatives.
Yeah, I’m with you. Who knows how this is going to go? I really, really don’t want to have to shop around for wireless service after the last few months I’ve had dealing with my grandfather’s internet/satellite provider. Here we go again.
Yes, T-Mobil is going to want some of their investment back and they will probably leave it be for a few months but after that, the Mint consumers will probably be hit by increases in their plans unless they have a contract stating otherwise. Since Ryan sold it he has no guarantees that they won’t hike up the prices.
Agree that T-Mobile will have to recoup that purchase price somehow, and their big investors like Vanguard and Black Rock will demand that. I’m so tired of the pervasive cash-out mentality that enables consolidation and lack of competition across so many industries. The doctrine of shareholder value always beats value to the consumer.
I realize Ryan was a minority investor here without power to call all of the shots. But he also doesn’t have to help T-Mobile with their advertising, and I wonder what he got paid for that.
I have T-Mobile because Sprint bought it and yeah, $70/month. It’s the cheap one. So yeah, Mint Mobile’s cheapness is definitely gone and buh-bye, folks.
I had Sprint Kickstart and was paying $40/mo and when T Mobile purchased Sprint, nothing changed for me: still $40/mo unlimited data. Doesn’t T Mobile offer any similar options? Prior to that I was with AT&T and paid $35/mo through Cricket…
I’m so out of touch LOL, never heard of mint mobile! Good for him! Although no matter what he does in life, when I see him I always think of him as a young teen on a cheesy soap called “Fifteen” that came on nickelodian in the early 90s. It was bad but we watched it
Ryan seems to be a very savvy business man. Good for him.
Prob combination of luck, business smarts, and celebrity opening up doors / people who want to do business with you, and free marketing and coverage from your fame. Honestly, when did he get time to really think about business models and the day-to-day details of running was it three businesses (the gin company, marketing company, and Mint) or more? He got with great business people and had plenty of money from his film career to invest.
I use mint ($280 for the year with 10gb data and free International calls) cannot beat the price and reception where we live. I am bummed as T-Mobile do not have a good reputation about telling the truth. I guess US Mobile might be up to bat next for me!
As a Metro by T-Mobile customer, I can tell you what will happen. You’ll see a lot more “network unavailable” messages. T-Mobile customers get first-line access to the network, then paying customers (like Mint used to be). In-house low-priced plans get the dregs of the network. Sometimes I can only make emergency calls for half an hour at a time.
I’m tired of hearing about about businesses and billions being spent to monopolize. It’s obscene and depressing.
I’m with you. I’m sick of everything, I’m sick of massive corporations and overpaid top level bosses. Why is it that some people have a need to hoard so much money?
(I’m not talking about Reynolds who seems like a decent person.)
It’s all so gross. Corporate greed (and Powell’s idiotic decisions) is why we’re all dealing with massive inflation.
I honestly harbor no ill will to Reynolds but I just cannot stomach stories about business men making billions and billions of dollars when so many people are suffering. I just really detest these kinds of stories as of late.
Corporations are always going to act in self-interest; it’s the nature of economic competition. However you need heavy regulation (anti-trust etc). All these acquisitions concentrate market power and consumers tend to end up with less choice and higher prices.
I can’t imagine the Mint subscribers prices won’t go up after this. All these big companies keep buying up the competition, it’s not good for anyone but billionaire CEOs.
Apparently Ryan owns about 25% of the company, so he’s going to get over $300 million for this sale. I hope he’s a charitable person, because he has made a ton of cash in recent years, and could do some good with it.
Ryan and Blake are very charitable. They donate a lot to varying causes. It’s something that’s really admirable about them. I wrote below about him owning 25 % of the company, but I wrote that before reading your comment.
Well he actually owns 25% stake in the company. He’s not getting billions for the sale. It’s still a lot of money though.
T-Mobile owns Metro. So they do have pay as you go, low cost cell phone plans under Metro. I’m not sure how they compare to Mint prices though.
I’m a rideshare driver in central Texas and I currently use Mint Mobile. I hate it. I drive all over and often into rural areas. Mint works in mid to large towns/cities but in rural areas (including my own dang home) it drops.
Even though it is more expensive I’m going back to ATT because they actually have decent coverage in rural areas.
But good for Ryan, I guess.
The sports community thinks he sold it off to get the money to buy some of the Ottawa senators NHL team. He’s wanted a hockey team for a long time, being Canadian and all!
Mint is great if it works. Terrible if you have problems. Customer service is non-existent. I purchased phone service for two phones. One SIM worked, the other did not. Apparently someone in Texas was already using that number. I spent 10 hours on the phone over weeks to get no resolution. They kept putting me off but never did anything. Then one customer service person told me they wouldn’t send a new SIM, and to request a refund. I was then told it was too late for a refund. It’s totally crooked, because I paid ahead for months of phone service I never even received, making the phone service I did get more expensive overall basically. If you pay ahead, they don’t have any motivation to fix problems. You’re stuck. It’s a crooked company. I tried to write to customer service and got an email back saying they don’t use that email. Gross. Take a look at all their BBB complaints (which they have actually been trying to resolve lately – probably anticipating this T-mobile deal). So many sound like exactly what I experienced. I’m waiting for my one phone with them to run out the term I paid and then I’m done with them.
His humour is not my thing. Kind of desperate to be kind or just my projection. He did say his overbearing, harsh father made him a really self-critical adult, didn’t he? Anyway, this money is insane! He got like 300 million from Aviation so he must be worth around 700 million or more by now. He is well on track to becoming a billionaire (only around mid-40s?). Blake is trying to do her own drinks thing. These celebrities aren’t necessarily great business people but everyone wants to work for them. He’s actually a pretty good dramatic actor if you check out his more “serious” roles but he’s so commercial in his choices.