Mint Mobile Acquisition: How Ryan Reynolds Helped Sell Mint to T-Mobile

In 2023 T-Mobile set a price of up to $1.35 billion for Mint Mobile's parent and closed the deal in 2024. Here are the terms, why a carrier bought a reseller of its own network, and what Ryan Reynolds' marketing added.

The Mint Mobile acquisition is one of the clearest cases of a celebrity owner turning attention into a sale price. T-Mobile signed in March 2023 to acquire Ka’ena, the company behind Mint, at a price capped at $1.35 billion, and it completed the purchase in May 2024. Because Mint already ran on T-Mobile’s network, the carrier was paying mainly for a brand and a way of selling. That is the part founders can learn from.

The deal terms at a glance

T-Mobile bought the whole Ka’ena group, not just Mint. Fortune reported that the package included Ultra Mobile and the wholesaler Plum, and that the price would be paid 39% in cash and 61% in T-Mobile stock.

Term As reported
Buyer T-Mobile US
Target Ka’ena: Mint, Ultra Mobile, Plum
Maximum price $1.35 billion
Payment mix 39% cash, 61% stock
Announced March 2023
Closed May 2024, after FCC approval

“Up to” matters here. Fortune noted that the final price depended on how Ka’ena performed before and after closing. That makes part of the headline number an earn-out: money paid only if the business hits agreed targets after the sale.

What Mint was: a reseller with a marketing engine

Mint did not own towers. It sold prepaid plans running on T-Mobile’s own network, which made the purchase unusual. As the Wall Street Journal put it in a report carried by Fox Business, the deal would save T-Mobile costs but did not bring it new network customers, since Mint subscribers already used its infrastructure. The companies did not say how many customers Mint had.

Mint’s draw was price and voice. Plans started at $15 a month, and Ryan Reynolds, a part owner since 2019, fronted the advertising. For scale, the WSJ reported that T-Mobile itself ended 2022 with about 21.4 million prepaid subscribers.

Why T-Mobile paid for the brand

T-Mobile said plainly that it wanted Mint’s way of selling. Fortune quoted the carrier as saying it would gain from Mint’s “industry-leading digital direct-to-consumer marketing expertise” to reach new customer groups. Chief executive Mike Sievert went further, saying the company would benefit from “applying the marketing formula Mint has become famous for across more parts of T-Mobile.”

Reynolds was the face of that formula; the WSJ described him as the personality in Mint’s TV and social ads. MNTN, the ad-tech firm where he is chief creative officer, says on its about page that he created campaigns for Mint Mobile, Aviation Gin and the Match Group. His firm Maximum Effort called its approach “fastvertising,” according to the WSJ: fast, cheap ads made while a topic is still hot, such as a Mint spot in which he read copy written for him by ChatGPT.

Who got paid: Reynolds’ reported stake

Reynolds was a minority owner, and his exact share was never published. The Hollywood Reporter said he was believed to own 20 to 25 percent, implying “a low nine-figure payday,” while stressing that it was unclear what he would personally receive. Fortune used an estimated 25%.

Because most of the price came in stock and part depended on later performance, a stake percentage cannot be turned into a cash figure from public information. The founders, David Glickman and Rizwan Kassim, stayed to run the Ka’ena brands as their own unit inside T-Mobile, and Reynolds kept his creative role, the Hollywood Reporter said.

Closing the deal: regulators and promises

The transaction took more than a year to finish. Android Central reported that the FCC cleared it the week before T-Mobile announced completion on Wednesday, May 1. To reassure Mint’s price-sensitive users, T-Mobile pledged to keep a $15-per-month plan and added perks such as its scam call screening. Android Central called it T-Mobile’s biggest acquisition since Sprint, which the WSJ valued at more than $30 billion when T-Mobile took it over in 2020.

The playbook Reynolds ran first: Aviation Gin

Mint was the second time this approach produced an exit. Reynolds bought into Aviation American Gin in 2018, a year before Mint, and his marketing company made the gin’s ads as well. When Diageo agreed in August 2020 to acquire the brand, its announcement set the price at up to $610 million, with $335 million at signing and the rest dependent on Aviation’s results over ten years. Diageo credited the brand’s growth partly to Reynolds’ creative direction, and he kept a stake.

The sequel to that deal is a warning about what a celebrity-built brand is worth once the buyer owns it. Diageo’s fiscal 2026 results show write-downs on Aviation of $231 million for the year to June 2025 and $44 million for the following year, after which Diageo described the brand as fully impaired. In other words, the buyer concluded that the brand no longer supported any of the value it had carried on Diageo’s balance sheet. Mint’s performance-linked price may have given T-Mobile some protection against a similar fade.

Mint Mobile acquisition lessons for founders

  • Distribution can be the asset. Mint sold something its buyer already owned, network access, and still commanded a ten-figure ceiling, with the buyer citing Mint’s customer-acquisition marketing as a reason.
  • A celebrity owner works best as an operator. Reynolds did not just lend his name; his agency produced the ads, and the buyer cited that marketing as a reason for the deal.
  • Read the structure, not the headline. A maximum price, a stock-heavy mix and performance conditions all change what sellers actually take home.
  • Plan for the approval gap. More than a year passed between signing and closing, with regulators weighing in before the end.

For other celebrity-brand exits, see our stories on Casamigos and Diageo and the Honest Company’s IPO, which took the public-market route instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much did T-Mobile pay for Mint Mobile?

The agreed ceiling was $1.35 billion for Ka’ena, Mint’s parent, payable in a mix of cash and stock. The final amount depended on performance before and after closing, and the closing announcement did not restate a final figure in the reports we reviewed.

Did Ryan Reynolds own Mint Mobile?

He was a minority owner. He bought a stake in 2019, per the Wall Street Journal, and his share was estimated at around a quarter by Fortune and at 20 to 25 percent by The Hollywood Reporter. He never disclosed it.

Who founded Mint Mobile?

David Glickman and Rizwan Kassim are identified as Mint’s founders in coverage of the deal, and both stayed on to run the brands inside T-Mobile.

When did the Mint Mobile acquisition close?

T-Mobile announced it had completed the purchase on Wednesday, May 1, in 2024, shortly after receiving FCC approval, Android Central reported.

Is Mint Mobile still $15 a month?

At the closing, T-Mobile pledged to keep a $15-per-month Mint plan available, according to Android Central.

Sources

This article is general information for founders and is not accounting, legal or investment advice. Net worth figures are estimates published by the outlets named, on the dates shown. They are not disclosed by the people profiled, they move with markets and private valuations, and different publications reach different numbers. Found Founders is not affiliated with anyone profiled here.