T-Mobile CEO John Legere to leave company in 2020, be succeeded by COO
Legere will stay on as chief executive through the end of his contract.
T-Mobile US President and Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert will succeed John Legere as CEO on May 1, 2020, the company announced Monday.
Legere will stay on as chief executive through the end of his contract, which expires April 30, 2020. He will remain a member of the board, the company said.
T-Mobile is the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S.
"John Legere has had an enormously successful run as CEO," Tim Höttges, Deutsche Telekom CEO, and chairman of T-Mobile US' board of directors. "As the architect of the Un-carrier strategy and the company's complete transformation, John has put T-Mobile US in an incredibly strong position."
T-Mobile CEO John Legere. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Legere, who has run the company for six years, tweeted that the move "has been under development for a long time."
"You've heard me joke that he's 'my son,' but in reality, since I hired him in 2012, @SievertMike's been my mentee, my secret weapon and my friend," Legere said.
WEWORK LOOKS TO T-MOBILE CEO FOR NEW ROLE
"I'm telling you, @SievertMike is absolutely the right choice to be the next CEO of @TMobile," he continued. "I know he'll take what we've done for the past 7 years and supercharge it!"
Embattled shared-workspace firm WeWork has reached out to Legere to help fill the C-suite as soon as January, FOX Business' Charlie Gasparino reported last week. It is unclear how serious discussions have been.
If interested, Legere would take over for WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann, who was forced out as CEO amid a failed initial public offering.
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The departure announcement comes after the Federal Communications Commission approved a $26.5 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint.
The two companies promised the government they would build a 5G network that would cover 97 percent of Americans in the three years after the finalized deal.