Ryan Reynolds mints a billion on Mint Mobile sale

The Future. T-Mobile is acquiring the Ryan Reynolds-backed Mint Mobile for over a billion dollars and keeping Reynolds on as their pitchman. The deal is another example of how Reynolds has leveraged his celebrity, comedic chops, and business acumen to turn underdog brands into hot-ticket items. It may also cement that sticky, viral marketing may be the only way for startups to break out in today’s business climate.

Teed up
It looks like Ryan Reynolds’ marketing magic has worked again.

• T-Mobile is buying Mint Mobile in a cash and stock deal valued at $1.35 billion.
• T-Mobile will keep the Mint branding and add the company to its other prepaid offerings, like Metro and Connect (the company has 21.4 million prepaid subscribers overall).
• Reynolds, a part-owner, will stay on in a “creative capacity,” according to WSJ, and will still appear in ads.

T-Mobile, now the second biggest wireless operator in the US, won’t necessarily gain any new customers in the deal since Mint Mobile already resells service using T-Mobile’s network.

Message received
But what T-Mobile does get in the deal is major marketing chutzpah, with CEO Mike Sievert saying that “over the long term, we’ll also benefit from applying the marketing formula Mint has become famous for across more parts of T-Mobile.”

It’s no wonder that the deal is keeping Reynolds around. His Maximum Effort marketing banner has leaned on what the actor calls “fastvertising” to make every one of its produced ads go viral. That led to Maximum Effort getting acquired by MNTN in 2021 (where Reynolds is now chief creative officer) and his Aviation Gin selling to Diageo in 2020 for $610 million.

Talk about in demand.