T-Mobile can afford Macklemore concert after all
NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Reuters) - T-Mobile US Chief Executive John Legere appeared to go back on his own words on Thursday with the announcement of a plan to sponsor a concert by rapper Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
T-Mobile announced the Jan. 23 concert in Los Angeles just over a week after Legere said he was kicked out of a Macklemore concert hosted in Las Vegas by archrival AT&T Inc after he had crashed the event.
The companies are in a full-scale battle to steal each other's customers after No. 2 U.S. mobile service AT&T on Jan. 3 offered to pay T-Mobile customers who switch to AT&T from the smaller carrier following months of direct marketing attacks from T-Mobile.
Legere had said at his own company's press conference on Jan. 8 that T-Mobile would focus on giving his customers a better deal rather than charging more so it could afford to hold expensive high-profile events, like Macklemore concerts.
"We didn't have a big concert with Macklemore the other night. I had to crash because we don't waste our money on this kind of stuff," Legere had told reporters in response to a question about the potential for a U.S. price war.
But only days later, the executive - who peppers his speeches with expletives and sharp criticism of his bigger rivals - seems to have reversed course and found enough spare cash for T-Mobile to act as presenting sponsor for the concert.
While AT&T fully sponsored the Macklemore concert last week, ticket sales for the newly announced Macklemore event would kick off on Friday.
"My appreciation for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis seems to be the worst kept secret in the social hemisphere," Legere said in a statement about the upcoming show.
Macklemore a rapper from Seattle performs with producer Ryan Lewis. T-Mobile's headquarters are in Bellevue, Washington, near Seattle. T-Mobile US is 67 percent owned by Deutsche Telekom .
