Ryan Reynolds Sells Mobile Company in Jaw-Dropping $1.35 Billion Deal

Sorry, Tammy Reynolds!

T-Mobile got this business deal. The company announced on March 15 that it's entered into an agreement to acquire Ka'ena Corporation, its subsidiaries and its brands, including Ryan Reynolds' prepaid wireless organization Mint Mobile. And the actor couldn't help but tease his mom in the announcement.

"Mint Mobile is the best deal in wireless and today's news only enhances our ability to deliver for our customers," he said in a press release. "We are so happy T-Mobile beat out an aggressive last-minute bid from my mom Tammy Reynolds as we believe the excellence of their 5G network will provide a better strategic fit than my mom's slightly-above-average mahjong skills. I am so proud of the entire Mint team and so excited for what's to come."

Of course, the playful trolling should come as no surprise to Ryan's fans. After all, followers have seen him joke around with his wife Blake Lively and pal Hugh Jackman online. 

Ryan continued to have fun with the announcement in a video with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert, who noted he was "so excited to have you and the whole Mint team join the T-Mobile family."

"Ha!" the Deadpool star replied. "Well, I wouldn't call it a family, Mike. Family is a place for misdirected hopes and dreams. I'm hoping this will be much better than that."

And when Ryan assured fans that Mint Mobile's "incredibly improvised and borderline reckless messaging strategy will also remain untouched," Mike pointed out he didn't remember anything about the word "reckless." However, the Free Guy alum joked he "wrote it into the contract with crayon."

All in all, Ryan said he's thrilled about the acquisition.

"I'm certain that I'm finally going to fill whatever hole I have inside my soul which possesses me to emphasize external success over quieting an internal child, futilely craving some sort of illusory acknowledgement from my now deceased father," the 46-year-old, whose father James C. Reynolds died in 2015, said, later giving Mike a hug and joking, "Nice to have a new dad."

It looks like the purchase cost a pretty penny too. According to the press release, "T-Mobile will pay up to a maximum of $1.35 billion in a combination of 39% cash and 61% stock to acquire Ka'ena," which includes the acquisition of Ultra Mobile and Plum in addition to Mint Mobile.

The deal comes about two and a half years after beverage company Diageo acquired Ryan's spirit brand Aviation American Gin for up to $610 million through its Davos Brands portfolio acquisition, with him retaining ownership interest in the gin organization.

It's certainly been a busy time for Ryan. In addition to running his other organizations—including production company and marketing agency Maximum Effort—as well as his soccer team Wrexham AFC, he's starring in Deadpool 3 and recently welcomed his fourth child with Blake. 

Though he's wearing a lot of hats these days, Ryan's various interests actually overlap quite a bit.

"Whether you're talking about the unexpected nature of sports, low-cost wireless, gin, connected TV marketing, ad tech, those kinds of things, the connective tissue between each one of those things is actually, ironically, storytelling, the same way it is with movies," Ryan told Washington Post Live in July. "That's the thing I love about these businesses and their variety of them."