WeWork In Talks To Hire T-Mobile CEO John Legere

According to The Wall Street Journal, WeWork is in discussions with T-Mobile CEO John Legere to take over leadership of the troubled office-sharing startup (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source). From the report: WeWork's parent, formally known as We Co., is searching for a CEO who can stabilize the company following the erratic tenure of its co-founder Adam Neumann. After WeWork's failed attempt at an initial public offering, SoftBank Group Corp. bought a majority stake in the company last month in a bailout, severing most ties with Mr. Neumann. The startup is looking for a new leader who could join as soon as January, some of the people said. There is no guarantee that Mr. Legere, who stands to receive a windfall if T-Mobile completes its proposed takeover of Sprint Corp. next year, would accept the position or that another candidate won't emerge.

Like Mr. Neumann, Mr. Legere is known as an unconventional executive. The 61-year-old has spent the past six years running T-Mobile with a pugnacious style, trashing his rivals on Twitter as "Dumb and Dumber," using foul language and dressing in the company's signature magenta. He has turned around T-Mobile's operations, luring millions of cellphone customers from larger players and initiating the pending takeover of Sprint. Two WeWork executives, Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, have served as co-CEOs since September when Mr. Neumann resigned under pressure as chief executive. SoftBank executives are seeking to replace the duo with a high-profile candidate who they hope can turn the company around with an eye toward potentially taking it public in the future, the people said.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a scam company with an unworkable business model, and a bad reputation on top of it. No reputable CEO would want to be part of it.

WeWork is desperate, and just throwing out crap ideas to give the illusion of being a legitimate company.

Re:

[youngone]

Good.
I hope Softbank lose all their money.

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

It's a scam company with an unworkable business model, and a bad reputation on top of it. No reputable CEO would want to be part of it.

If you throw enough money at a person, their concept of "legitimate company" can morph substantially.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

Shouldn't they be hiring Stephen Elop? He's already got a memo prepared for the day he starts.

Can't make it any worse anyway

[thesjaakspoiler]

so this is just a golden opportunity for anyone.
And mr Son will keep on throwing his free money at this venture anyhow because he doesn't want wreck his reputation in Japan.

T-Mobile will fail without Legere

[phalse phace]

Without John Legere's leadership, I think the T-Mobile/Sprint merger will fail.

Without Legere, will T-Mobile even commit to offering their cheapest phone plan, free service to first responders, 10 million free hotspots to students, etc. [slashdot.org]?

BIG JL

[spinitch]

J Legere could be a welcome addition to SoftBank leadership team. Rescuing WeWork would be a huge challenge in need of Johns energy and dynamism. Would be very expensive to persuade him to leave T-Mobile which is still rolling and a big part is Legere team. John would need to rebuild a team at WeWork. Doubt he takes it.

Why bother? WW is toast.

[gatkinso]

I give them 4 months.

Unalike

[radarskiy]

"Like Mr. Neumann, Mr. Legere is known as an unconventional executive"

John Legere is an unconventional executive. Adam Neumann is a grifter.

Expressing my paranoia

[John.Banister]

First Legere is lured away from T-Mobile by a new challenge with a huge salary. Next, with Legere gone, Masayoshi Son inserts himself into the management of the merged telecom company, certain that having T-Mobile's resources under his control rather than competing with him, he can finally succeed at yoking American mobile data customers with the kind of contract that he's sure a dumb phone customer in 1980s Japan ought to have.Then, I have to get a pizza box sized hat and a backpack power supply just to gi