T-Mobile names veteran Srini Gopalan as CEO to steer strategy amid fierce competition

By Zaheer Kachwala

Sept 22 (Reuters) - T-Mobile TMUS.O said on Monday insider Srinivasan Gopalan would take over as CEO from Mike Sievert on November 1, marking a leadership transition as the telecom company works to defend its 5G lead in a saturated U.S. wireless market.

Wireless carriers have been grappling with slowing subscriber growth, rising competition and increasingly cautious consumers unwilling to pay for premium plans.

The industry has also witnessed significant consolidation in recent years, exemplified by T-Mobile's $26 billion merger with Sprint in 2020. That deal reshaped the U.S. telecom landscape, establishing Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile as the dominant 'big three' telecom companies, while also attracting antitrust scrutiny from regulators.

T-Mobile capitalized on the Sprint merger to grow its customer base, winning share in both postpaid and prepaid markets and positioning itself as the industry's fastest-growing major carrier.

The company, under Sievert's leadership, overtook AT&T to become the second-largest wireless carrier by subscribers in the U.S., behind Verizon.

T-Mobile's aggressive promotions, add-on perks and partnerships with streaming services also helped it maintain an edge over rivals and grab market share.

Sievert, who took charge as CEO in April 2020, will move to the newly created position of vice chairman and advise on long-term strategy, innovation and talent development. T-Mobile shares had outperformed AT&T and Verizon's during his tenure.

"Srini Gopalan brings a wealth of experience and is a very impressive leader, and they've handled this transition exceptionally well. I don't expect there to be any fall-off at all in T-Mobile's performance," MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said.

Gopalan, currently the chief operating officer of T-Mobile, had held senior leadership positions at Bharti Airtel, Capital One and Vodafone and most recently served as the CEO of Deutsche Telekom's Germany business, where he was credited with doubling the company's growth rate and scaling its fiber business.

He had previously served on T-Mobile's board for nearly four years and took on as the COO in March. Shares of T-Mobile fell more than 1% in premarket trading.