Legere: "We're going to do the things to help customers that the other guys won't do"

If you want to know what T-Mobile CEO John Legere is all about, a telling moment came during an interview with Bloomberg. Before the T-Mobile sponsored Macklemore concert, Legere was asked by the interviewer which of the rapper's songs he liked the best. After answering, the executive turned to the interviewer and asked, "Yours?" This is a man who obviously cares about other people. Not too many executives in the same position would have bothered asking.

Once again, Legere directed his razor sharp wit at AT&T and its buttoned down CEO Randall Stephenson. Talking about the AT&T building, not far from where the concert was held, Legere said that in the daytime, you would find empty floors in the building "because times are tough at the Death Star."


Legere denied that he has instigated a price war. Instead, he complained about the other carriers using consumers to raise their EBITDA (a metric measuring cash flow) margins above 55%. "This is a profitable growth business for us," said the CEO, wearing his now trademark leather jacket and T-Mobile "T"-shirt. The point he was making is that when it comes to how this pricing is affecting T-Mobile, he is on top of it all. What he can't control is how T-Mobile's innovations will affect his rivals. "Price is an issue relative to them (his rivals) and the issue is that customers have been getting screwed".

There is some irony here. At CES, Legere tried to sneak into AT&T's party that featured Macklemore and was kicked out. Having a T-Mobile sponsored Macklemore concert is a typical Legerian move. But outside of the other carriers, who is complaining? The CEO has the Midas touch right now. And what about the rumored Sprint acquisition of T-Mobile? "I'm open to looking at options," said Legere who appeared not to be worried at all about the possibility of losing his his job in a merger.

There is no doubt that John Legere is the man of the moment in mobile. To see what he thinks of the price wars, the battle over spectrum, and a possible Sprint acquisition of T-Mobile, click on the video below.



source: Bloomberg