Ryan Reynolds Mint Mobile sells for $1.35 billion

Not to begrudge Messr Reynolds’s success, but from a consumer standpoint why would someone choose a product on the basis that Ryan Reynolds was an owner? That would make me less likely to buy it. Reynolds coasts on his past success and makes huge paydays doing streaming movies nobody watches. I’m not going to let him profit from my mobile usage.

The idea of celebrities owning utilities frankly terrifies me.

Ryan and Blake are everything Harry and Meghan wish they were, and will never be.

Shameless garbage hucksters? They already are.

And now he’s going to sink all that money into trying to Ted Lasso his way into peoples’ hearts lmaaoooo

Wait til the anvil drops and he sees how expensive and thankless and hopeless it is bankrolling a football club

Aw fuck. I went from spending $650 a year with T-Mobile to $180 a year with Mint for the exact same service on the exact same network.

Yeah, they'll shut it down.

No, there are plenty of resellers with prepaid plans to pick up the slack.

Well yeah duh. Surely you realize Reynolds’ goal was to sell. Its not exactly fleecing his customers, but you have to had to realize that this wasn’t a commitment from him, just one hustle after the next. It’s the same logic as a celebrity buying a luxury property, and flipping it after a year with a 25% premium on the basis that “a celebrity lived there.”

But with the above comparison, the hypothetical celebrity is only bilking another high net worth individual. With Reynolds’ company, if T-Mobile intends to eliminate it, he’s sold out his (presumably) non-affluent customers.

[quote]from a consumer standpoint why would someone choose a product on the basis that Ryan Reynolds was an owner?

I went with Mint because it was the cheapest cell phone I could find -- by far. I didn't care if who was fronting the company.

Reynolds has turned out to be a savvy businessman. I'm rather shocked.

R7 exactly. Reynolds is no better than a scalper or a cowboy landlord or a tax collector.

His fake-nice act always was hard to trust.

Are you confused OP? Because it reads that you DO begrudge Reynolds his success. Envious? He's cute and has played the game well.

Agree, R11. Well done, RR!

The poor thing had to sublet part of his commercial to Jack-in-the-Box.

People choose products hawked by celebrities ALL THE TIME. Why would this suddenly be any different?

I have Mint and didn't know Ryan Reynolds had any involvement. Mint was recommended to me by a friend and it has enabled me to have a US phone number with minimal hassle. I don't think this sale is going to benefit me.

[quote] The idea of celebrities owning utilities frankly terrifies me.

I think you might be a little too easily terrified.

R14 = idiot

If Ben Barnes pitches T-Mobile, it’s not because he owns it. He doesn’t tell people he owns it in the ad like Ryan Reynolds.

Typically if a celebrity fronts a company that they own, it’s been a luxury company like Nobu with Robert DeNiro or Goop and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Ryan Reynolds owned and fronted a low-cost mobile carrier for people on a budget, with the intention of flipping it, to a company whom invariably intends to shut it down. Surely one can discern the difference between that and a $200 vagina candle?

I would be really pissed if I had bought this based on Reynolds owning it and then he sold it. I had actually thought it had been a good idea because of his commercials and the price and he had wanted to offer an alternative to people that didn't cost an arm and a leg and it didn't sound like he was in it just for the money. HA!

Reynolds has rubbed me the wrong way for several years. Yet, if asked to specifically nail down what it is about him that I specifically dislike, I might be hard-pressed to put it into words.

It's just an innate thing I've come to feel about him.

More people probably watch Ryan's streaming movies than most theatrical releases, OP.

Spirited

The Adam Project

Red Notice

6 Underground

Yeah, real string of cultural touchstones there

Nobody claimed they were cultural touchstones. Just that they have been watched by a HUGE number of people. And "The Adam Project" was really good, in particular.

Oh great Ted Sarandos is posting here

How many people made it to five minutes, Ted

R20, I had the same irrational thoughts about Swoosie Kurtz years and years and years ago.

Mint's cofounder, David Glickman, thought Reynolds was an advertising genius based on "Deadpool" and his gin company association. He saw the value of bringing Reynolds into the fold with an ownership stake and his bet paid off.

Consumer loyalties frequently shift within this sector and there will be other providers eager to win the business of disgruntled Mint customers.

Did you ever change in your thinking about Kurtz?

I have over my life made minor to major changes in how I viewed celebs. My earliest example probably was as an 8th or 9th grade in the aftermath of seeing Barbara Streisand on the big screen in Hello Dolly. Couldn't stand her before that point in time.

I was really only a kid then, obviously, but I've kept that example lodged in my grey cells as a reminder that I can change my mind about people &/or circumstances & issues.

What makes you all think that T-Mobile bought this to shut it down? It already operates on T-Mobile's network. I imagine that T-Mobile will still operate it as a prepaid wireless service like AT&T's Cricket, Verizon's Visible and it's own Metro. If anything, they might roll it into Metro.

It's because of Ryan Reynold that Mint is even on anyone's radar. Otherwise no one would care

[quote]What makes you all think that T-Mobile bought this to shut it down?

Because the main point of acquiring a rival is to merge operations and eliminate redundancies

T-Mobile didn't shut down MetroPCS when they bought it. So why wouldn't/couldn't they continue to operate Mint as separate brand?

MetroPCS is à fundamentally different product than what T-Mobile offers.

"The idea of celebrities owning utilities frankly terrifies me."

Gurl, are you also tender to the touch?

Here's the announcement... it's cute:

[quote]why would someone choose a product on the basis that Ryan Reynolds was an owner?

Hear! Hear!

R36 Jorge, don't you have some child-labourer bodies to dispose of?

Recently switched from AT&T to T-Mobile. One of my stupidest decisions ever. I fell for promises of a much lower monthly bill. They lied, they deceived me, and the endless incomprehensible fine print has led to my being totally ripped off. And they keep adding surprise charges.

I’d been wondering if one of the off-brands might be a better fit. Now I’m at the point of not trusting any of those companies.

OP I feel a bit sorry for Lampard--well, as much as I can possibly feel sorry for an overpaid middle-aged nepo baby.

Frank Jr. been under enormous pressure since childhood to live up and exceed to his famous footballer father's expectations, and apparently embracing and being proud of his sexuality was never part of that. He's probably lost a lot of chances for emotional or romantic happiness due to his career and his success. Though with the lifestyle he lives now and will continue to be able to live until old age, he's probably chosen the smart path for the wellbeing of his family and his own physical health. We have to make sacrifices sometimes, and perhaps his was the right one.

Still...following the England players of my youth all these years, I do think he really has loved Stevie (Gerrard) for so long, and it kills him that media constantly pit them against each other and drive a wedge, trying to mould them into the perfect tabloid-grabbing rivals. Look at them in reality, though, and it's evident they're good friends, likely lovers at one point. Whenever they're together, they just seem to melt into one person, like there's no-one else in the room--it jumps out to anyone who sees them. Yet they will never have an opportunity to explore their feelings and relationship in a normal open healthy way, only ever behind locked hotel doors in snatched hours. It's sad.

But again, as I say, millions of quid and mansions and exotic holidays and years off work soften the blow, I'm sure.

OK I see the point being made. The comparison might be to Newman's Own? A celebrity owned brand that grew because it was offering quality and value to the customer.

Still its the 2020s and its Dillinger Capitalism so I'm surprised that Americans hold romantic ideas about entrepreneurial business people. Ryan sold his whisky brand for half a billion so what were people expecting for his phone brand? He didn't call it Florence Nightingale Mobile.

He wasn't going to claw his way to the super-rich .01% just on his acting.

It's fairly impressive the speed with which he built his fortune based on persuading people to buy his stuff, so maybe I do understand the surprise a bit, in that way of looking. Or the disappointment. Especially among older folks. Change seems to accelerate as we get older. Many people develop an idea about a person but it becomes outdated without our awareness. He was the cute actor who showed his fanny in light movie fare but that was quite some time ago.

I am paying $65 a month for unlimited service, using Verizon. I'd been very interested in Mint, assured by many that it's a much cheaper fit. (I think their unlimited is $30 a month.) I think I'm going to not pull the trigger so fast until I see the pricing trends of this new entity.

I have been with them for about a year. Much better than TracFone. I hope nothing changes. I do not give a shit about Ryan Reynolds.

When Sprint got sucked into T Mobile, I cried. I continue to weep to this day. T Mobile is an inferior carrier.

What’s Ryan Reynolds’ skin color?

R23 Did you see the same “Adam Project” movie that I did? The one I saw sucked.

I liked it. I used to not like Ryan Reynolds stupid movies. Then about 5 years ago I flipped and liked his stupid movies.

Ka-Ching!

Hot and very attractive daddy Ryan Reynolds now is quite wealthy.

The Onion has had sufficient

BELLEVUE, WA—Calling the actor “a perfect fit” for the cell phone carrier’s brand, T-Mobile announced Thursday that they had acquired Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile in an effort to make their company more annoying. “We already consistently drop your calls and deliver some of worst customer service in the country, but we wanted to take things one step further by partnering with a man so off-putting you’ll consider ditching your phone all together,” said T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert, who confirmed that the the decision to purchase Mint Mobile for $1.35 billion came after years of customers asking the company to become more irritating. “We wanted T-Mobile to be a brand that doesn’t just feel annoying, but feels like it’s proud to be annoying. We want our customers to feel a sense of exasperation so deep they feel physically ill. We want you to feel the acid in your throats. We want you to see our commercials and then destroy your TVs in a rage. People have always hated us. Now, we’re thrilled to be even worse.” At press time, Sievert added that Reynolds would continue his creative role with the company so as to repulse as many customers as possible.

T-Mobile bought Mint to shut it down. End of story.

Ryan Reynolds has a 25% ownership of Mint - so, $337.5 million of the $1.35b.

Aviation Gin was purchased for $610mm, but $275mm was set to payout over 10 years depending on performance. It's not clear how much he actually owned although articles keep referring to his being a "co-owner" so he might have owned half the company.

He's smart because he picks businesses that benefit from his personal participation - celebrity version of sweat equity, I suppose. Neither Aviation nor Mint would have built their businesses as quickly without his actively using his celebrity to push them to consumers.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3TmqOorZ6csm%2BvzqZmraCimq6le5JrbWtqZmeBbr7YmqVmqpWuu7C4w6xkpqGeqXquu8Gio55lo5q5rb%2BMn6arZWFjgHZ5waKjpaGfo3o%3D