The biggest loser in the $26.5 billion merger between Sprint and T-Mobile may be fans of Twitter smacktalk.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure have long traded shots on Twitter and in public statements. Legere, in particular, has issued some expletive-laden tweets about the company he's now going to be running.
He used some choice language to describe Sprint's 2014 "Framily Plan," which allowed customers to decide who they considered "family" for their phone plans.
In November 2015, he pointed to what he called "the beginning of the end" of the company he'll now run.
He's never been a fan of Sprint's ads.
He once devoted a 10-tweet thread to reasons customers should ditch Sprint for T-Mobile.
Legere has praised Sprint's speed in the days since the announcement and said the merger is the only chance for the U.S. to lead in 5G, but in February 2017 he couldn't find a single thing to like about the provider.
Three months later, his company's controlling shareholder, Deutsche Telekom, was in talks with Sprint's majority owner, SoftBank, on a merger.
But the insults didn't stop. Legere was dinging Sprint as recently as January.
Fortunately for Legere, he gets to run the combined company, if regulators allow the third- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless companies to come together. He'll get a chance to improve Sprint's network, which he's so heavily criticized over the years.
Claure has generally been more restrained, but has occasionally had some strong words for Legere. In 2015, Claure called T-Mobile's service "uncarrier bulls---" and said its "cheap misleading lease" was a joke.
There was a even time Claure called Legere a con artist. Now he's handing him his company. To quote Claure, "good luck."
