T-Mobile’s Hollywood hustle buy 💸

There are gratitude lists, and then there’s Ryan Reynolds’ gratitude list. 📜 The estimated 25% owner of Mint Mobile is saying cheers after selling his budget-friendly wireless mobile start-up to T-Mobile (TMUS) (TMUSR) as part of their Ka'ena Corporation acquisition in a deal worth up to US$1.35 billion. 

Seems T-Mobile’s not just saving Ry-Rey a seat either. 💺 The US telco giant’s strong quarterly results revealed they’re strategically ‘growing market share and their customer base’. They added 1.3 million new monthly customers, surpassing competitors Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T), and their 5G network has whizzed ahead of rivals for both coverage and speed.

With Reynolds collecting an estimated US$300 million from the  deal, it may seem the Deadpool anti-hero has the midas touch. 💥👈 After he bought a stake in Mint Mobile in 2019, their app downloads jumped 34% in the following 12 months compared to the preceding 12 months. Then in 2020, while we were bingeing blockbusters on the small screen and stockpiling gin, Wrexham Football Club co-owner (with Rob McElhenney) Reynolds was flexing. 💪 He was Hollywood’s second highest paid actor, earning US$71.5 million, and the teary tipple he co-owned with Davos Brands, Aviation Gin, sold to Diageo (DEO) for up to US$610 million. 🍸 

The gin slinger’s not alone in the Hollywood side hustle. In 2021, his power-couple-other-half Blake Lively launched premium soda brand Betty Buzz, co-owned by Reynolds’ long time ‘rival’ and Deadpool 3 co-star, Hugh Jackman, who himself also owns fair trade brand, Laughing Man Coffee. ☕

Ashton Kutcher and Jared Leto have invested in Big Tech, including Uber (UBER), Airbnb (ABNB) and Spotify (SPOT). Leto also owns a slice of Slack, owned by Salesforce (CRM), the company facing heat for reportedly paying Matthew McConaughey US$10 million a year for ‘creative help’ despite laying off more than 7,000 staff this year. Meanwhile, could Dos Hombres owners Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul be shaking up scary mezcal cocktails while waiting for the Diageo hotline to ring? ☎️