4B z WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019 z USA TODAY MONEY
T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere has
surfaced as the possible new CEO at
WeWork, where he would follow the
troubled tenure of co-founder Adam
Neumann. The Wall Street Journal re-
ported that Legere is in discussions with
the office-sharing startup, which was
bailed out recently by SoftBank Group.
The topic of succession at T-Mobile
came up during a sit-down Legere had
with USA TODAYlast week, fresh off the
announcements that T-Mobile would
be flipping the switch on its 5G network
on Dec. 6, Legere was joined in the con-
versation by T-Mobile president and
COO Mike Sievert to discuss the re-
maining obstacles to T-Mobile’s pend-
ing merger with Sprint and to make the
case that the merger will result in more,
competition, and more jobs. SoftBank
already holds a major stake in Sprint.
The Journal article stated that there’s
no guarantee Legere would take on the
WeWork challenge.
Though the T-Mobile-Sprint deal has
been blessed by both the Justice Dept.
and Federal Communications Commis-
sion, a number of states attorneys gen-
eral have sued to block the merger, with
a trial set to begin Dec. 9.
“We announced at the time of the
(Sprint) transaction that we were pre-
naming me CEO and Mike as president
and COO, Legere said. “We certainly
also thought that the deal would be
done a year ago.”
Legere went on to joke that “if this
transaction goes on 10 more years, I’ll be
in my 70s.” And while WeWork never
came up, Legere said that when it comes
to new T-Mobile, “There’s always a lot of
good strong speculation about succes-
sion and things.”
The conversation, edited for clarity
and brevity, also touched on newly an-
nounced initiatives that are contingent
on merger approval: a prepaid $15 a
month budget offering, and plans to give
away internet access to first responders,
and low-income families with school-
age kids.
Question: Where do things currently
stand with the states?
Legere:We’ve recently had two states
withdraw from the trial, Colorado and
Mississippi. And that was purely based
upon meeting with the AG’s, talking the
things that are important to them: com-
petition, rural buildouts, price protec-
tion. At the federal level, we’ve made
very deep commitments about our
spending, and our 5G buildout and jobs.
And, in effect, we bring that down to a
state level.
I think that collectively gives, for ex-
ample, the New York attorney general a
lot to think about.
If you don’t settle, you go to trial. If
(our opponents) “win,” what do you
win? What happens to Sprint, what
happens to Dish Network (which is pur-
chasing Sprint’s prepaid brands Boost
Mobile and Virgin Mobile), what hap-
pens to competition, what happens to
5G? So, the dialogue continues.Q:The full 5G capabilities that you
say will come as a result of the merger –
14 times the capacity of standalone’s T-
Mobile – assumes the merger goes
through?
Legere:Part of what people are trying
to sort out right now is, “hey what’s go-
ing to happen to the low end of the mar-
ket? Is T-Mobile going to be competing
down at that low end?” So, we answered
that question (with the $15 plan).Q:Pricing is always a big deal for con-
sumers. But will we also continue to see
the extra “goodies” that consumers have
become accustomed to in a competitive
market? Streaming services and such?
Sievert:It’ll be the kinds of things
you’ve seen in the past, but more. That’s
what we mean when we use this phrase,
“The Un-carrier, super-charged.” And
the reason for it is very simple: This net-
work will have massive capacity, and, at
the end of the day, capacity is what al-
lows us to do those things.
Legere: Our T-Mobile Tuesdays
(weekly discounts) is one of the most
incredible things that we’ve done with
customers. I sit there some weeks and I
say, “so this week, a free Whopper, flow-
ers, tacos at Taco Bell, Shell gas dis-counts, LiveNation discounts, Booking-
.com, and I think to myself that’s just
this week.” Some people are so religious
about Tuesdays (it’s like) a celebration
every week. And the relationship we
have with those customers through the
app and their engagement is so deep.Q:What happens to the Sprint brand
if the merger goes through?
Sievert:We haven’t made a decision
about the brands long-term but what we
have made clear is that the mainstream
brand in the post-paid arena will be T-
Mobile.
Legere:The Sprint brand is an asset
of the new T-Mobile. We’ll probablyshortly after the closing of the transac-
tion make some initial brand decisions.Q:Critics claim that the merger will
lead to a loss of jobs?
Sievert: We’ve been very clear that
the new company will have more em-
ployees than the two separate standa-
lones combined. At the beginning and
every day thereafter. And by several
years in we’ll have 11,000 more people
than the two combined.Q:Is there a good consumer under-
standing of what 5G? will bring?
Legere:I think the last 12 months, it’s
taken 10 steps backwards because of the
marketing that has been done by espe-
cially AT&T and Verizon (and their de-
sire to be) “first.” And things like AT&T’s
(misleading message around) “5GE.”
Over time 5G is not only fast speeds
in the football stadium, it’s about auton-
omous driving, simultaneous transla-
tion and telepresence applications.
AT&T and Verizon have been afraid to
state here’s how we get there; it doesn’t
start with 2020, it’s ’22, ’23.
Saddest moment I have is when an
otherwise very smart individual walks
up to me and says, “hey, why don’t you
guys have this?” And the phone (the
person has) says “5GE.”Q:What do you feel is still misunder-
stood about this merger?
Legere:Obviously there’s politics in-
volved, it’s a crazy time. But the jour-
ney’s been so long.
From day one, I know the answer on
jobs, I know the answer on competition,
I know the answer on 5G deployment
and the rural buildout and on prices,
and step-by-step we have provided
structural answers.
There’s this archaic question where
antitrust lawyers just believe textbook-
wise that if something is four and it goes
to three it is bad. Whether or not supply
goes up and prices go down and compe-
tition goes up.
Many people worry that there won’t
be a T-Mobile doing what a T-Mobile is
doing. Whereas what we want to do is
make the scale and the scope and the
capability to do more of what T-Mobile
is doing.T-Mobile CEO has merger plans
Legere lays out his vision
if Sprint deal gets done
Edward C. Baig
USA TODAY
T-Mobile’s COO Mike Sievert, left, and
CEO John Legere.EDWARD C. BAIG“The new company will havemore employees than thetwo separate standalonescombined. At the beginningand every day thereafter.”
Mike Sievert,T-Mobile COOMILWAUKEE – Horseradish, the root
that adds a spicy kick to sauces and
food, might not be heating things up this
winter.
The world’s largest grower and sup-
plier of horseradish, Eau Claire, Wis-
consin-based Huntsinger Farms and its
subsidiary Silver Spring Foods, predicts
a shortage in early 2020.
That means bloody marys with a
good kick and cocktail sauce that clears
sinuses could be hard to come by early
next year.
The company has experienced three
seasons of unusually wet and cold
weather, forcing it to harvest less than
normal.
This fall, Silver Spring Foods wasn’t
able to harvest about 1.5 million to 2 mil-
lion pounds of horseradishes before
snow fell in late October. Those crops
will now stay in the ground until spring.
“We got about half of what we were
expecting out of the ground. We are con-
cerned that we will not be able to make it
through,” said Silver Spring Foods Presi-
dent Eric Rygg.
Horseradish roots are harvested in
fall or spring and then replanted imme-
diately after harvest. Horseradish typi-
cally spends about 12 to 18 months in the
ground.
Silver Spring Foods already was be-
hind in production from a lower harvest
in fall 2018, and subsequently planting
fewer new horseradish seeds.
In the past, Silver Spring Foods
would purchase horseradish from other
suppliers from areas that didn’t have in-
clement weather. But this year other
suppliers are struggling to harvest their
yield.
“We have been able to purchase what
we need from other farmers, and this is
the first time in our history that we
haven’t been able to bridge that gap,”
Rygg said. “They’re also tight and facing
some similar weather patterns.”
Silver Spring Foods has begun to no-
tify buyers of the shortage. Their horse-
radish is sold everywhere from grocery
stores to restaurants, to companies that
use horseradish in their sauces.
“We are filling orders. We’re just ra-
tioning some of our orders right now to
try and make it last,” Rygg said. “The
biggest question for us is how long will
the root supply for us last.”
Rygg believes that buyers haven’t felt
the effect of the shortage yet.
“The shortages would probably come
in the February, March time frame,” he
said.
While weather has depleted the har-
vest for Silver Spring Farms, demand for
horseradish has risen.
“We had an overall increase in de-
mand for horseradish recently. More
companies are discovering the benefit
of it adding a lot of flavor that doesn’t
add fat, sugar and calories,” Rygg said.
“It makes the problem twofold.”Huntsinger Farms grows horseradish on at least 9,000 acres.MARY BERGIN
Bloody hell! Horseradish
producer warns of shortage
Jordyn Noennig
Now News Group
USA TODAY NETWORK
Offervalidthrough November16,2019while supplies last. Seecostway.com/usatodayfordetails.