Ryan Reynold’s Mint Mobile is scooped up by T-Mobile in a $1.35 billion deal

In an effort to bolster its prepaid phone business and reach more low-income customers, T-Mobile US Inc. is taking over Mint Mobile, a budget wireless provider that is partly owned by actor Ryan Reynolds, for up to $1.35 billion.

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Ka'ena Corp., the parent company of Mint, is being acquired by the second-largest US wireless provider with a mix of cash and stock worth 39%, according to a statement released Wednesday. Mint will be required to meet certain performance goals before and after the transaction closes to determine the final purchase price.

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Despite the fact that Reynolds owns an undisclosed but “significant” stake in Mint, he will continue to appear as a commercial actor for the company, co-founder David Glickman said in an interview. He added that the actor has incentives to “continue for years to come.” In addition to managing Ultra Mobile, an international phone service, Glickman and his partner Rizwan Kassim will be joining T-Mobile as business executives.

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Mint has some of the lowest-priced mobile plans in the country, starting at $15 a month for 4 gigabytes of wireless data. Mint's subscriber count was not disclosed by the companies. Glickman says the company's annual subscriber growth has been 50% for the past four years, and its revenue growth has been 70% or more. 

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There are no stores in this business, and all of the phones and mobile plans are sold entirely online. T-Mobile already provides the service as part of a wholesale network-sharing agreement that it has with other carriers.

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As Mike Katz, president of marketing at T-Mobile, put it, "Mint's formula works, the brand is growing fast and we can leverage our buying power for phones and marketing for more fuel to that growth." Metro, a prepaid brand operated by the Bellevue, Washington-based carrier, also operates its own retail store in Bellevue. 

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Pay-as-you-go has been seen as a source of overall subscriber growth as credit-challenged customers are eventually drawn into monthly billing. There are a number of prepaid phone brands competing with Mint, including Cricket from AT&T Inc., Total from Verizon Communications Inc., and Boost Mobile from Dish Network Corp. 

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T-Mobile does not anticipate any changes to its financial outlook for 2023 as a result of the deal closing later this year. Mint is expected to be "slightly accretive" to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Shares of the company traded at $143.09 in New York on Wednesday morning.

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In 2020, Reynolds sold Aviation Gin to Diageo Plc for $610 million, with nearly half of that payment based on sales performance. The actor, who is known for his role in the superhero series Deadpool, got to know Glickman as a result of their joint collaboration with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Moreover, Reynolds is not only the co-owner of the Welsh soccer team Wrexham AFC but has also been featured in a documentary series on the FX network about the team.

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“I'm so happy T-Mobile beat out an aggressive last-minute bid from my mom Tammy Reynolds as we think their 5G network will provide a better strategic fit than my mom's slightly above-average mahjong skills,” Reynolds joked.