Hollywood darling Ryan Reynolds has sold his cellular startup Mint Mobile to telecom giant T-Mobile in a $1.35 billion dollar deal.
The bold move set the business world – and the Twitterverse – on fire this afternoon as news of the agreement broke.
The Canadian-born and award-winning Hollywood action star has become a successful business entrepreneur, co-owning at least three successful startups in the past decade, the others being Aviation Gin and production and marketing company Maximum Effort.
Reynolds co-founded Mint Mobile in 2016, as a way to give big wireless the proverbial "middle finger."
“Mint wasn't an obvious next step after Aviation Gin. Low-cost wireless isn't glamorous. Yet, in the 3+ years, Mint Mobile grew exponentially. So proud of the team,” Reynolds tweeted to his 21.2 million followers.
Mint's successful direct-to-consumer low-cost wireless network was able to offer customers a complete package for only $15 a month, practically half of the other major wireless carriers' introductory packages.
T-Mobile and Reynolds tweeted a joint video explaining how the agreement came to fruition.
The T-Mobile agreement is actually with Ka’ena Corporation, the parent company of Mint Mobile.
The sale will include its two other brands: Ultra Mobile, a unique wireless service offering international calling options to communities across the country; and wholesaler Plum.
The billion-dollar deal will cover all brand sales, as well as marketing, digital, and service operations, T-Mobile said, adding that it plans to use its supplier relationships and distribution scale to help the brand continue to grow, while applying the Mint Mobile marketing strategy across more parts of the company in time.
T-Mobile agreed to pay Reynolds and his crew up to a maximum of $1.35 billion in a combination of 39% cash and 61% stock.
The final numbers will be based on Ka'ena's market value leading up to the actual signing.
Reynolds owns roughly 25% of the Mint Mobile company.
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