Ex-T-Mobile CEO Goes After Ex-Sprint CEO on Twitter (Again)
In a bit of a throwback, John Legere and Marcelo Claure—former CEOs of T-Mobile and Sprint, respectively—are once again battling it out on Twitter. Well, Legere is throwing barbs at least.
As CEO and then chairman of Sprint, Claure was tasked with merging his company with Legere's T-Mobile US. The first attempt, in 2013-2014, failed because of Obama-era regulators. The duo then retreated to their corners until 2015, when Claure responded to a Legere tweet by calling his T-Mobile strategy "Uncarrier bullshit."
Years later, under the Trump administration, the merger succeeded and the CEOs patched things up, at least publicly.
Claure finally left SoftBank (formerly Sprint's parent company) on Jan. 28 amid a pay dispute over "as much as $2 billion in compensation," according to the Wall Street Journal. Don't cry for him, as he's getting $30-$50 million in severance.
Legere left T-Mobile in 2020 with $136.55 million in severance, Ars Technica reports. At the moment he appears to have a massive social media presence, with 5.9 million Twitter followers, but no actual "job" per se.
That all leads to a super spicy tweet exchange. Claure, who likes to post pictures of his family and inspirational statements, said yesterday: "nobody cares about what you have accomplished in the past—it's all about what your next play is." Legere responded this morning: "Whatever your next play is don't expect me to carry you on my back again :))))"
There are a couple of possible meanings there. When T-Mobile purchased it, Sprint was considered pretty damaged goods. Legere could also be saying that he was the motivating force in getting the merger passed. At any rate, Claure has not (yet) taken the bait.
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