Technologies

T-Mobile’s Mike Sievert to Become Un-CEO: Srini Gopalan Takes Over Nov. 1

Gopalan’s takeover is part of a planned succession strategy, according to the company.

T-Mobile announced today that CEO Mike Sievert will step down effective Nov. 1 and be replaced by current Chief Operating Officer Srini Gopalan. Sievert will continue with the company as vice chairman and also serve on its board of directors.

The announcement comes as T-Mobile is soaring in the mobile marketplace. A CEO shift often indicates problems for a company, but in this case, all outward signs point to an orderly, planned succession. It should have little impact on T-Mobile customers, but time will tell. Gopalan faces a softening economy and government pressures on how T-Mobile and other carriers do business.

In an email sent to T-Mobile employees and obtained by CNET, Sievert addressed one of the top questions that has come up after his five-year tenure.

«So why now?» Sievert wrote. «When you take on the role of CEO, you aspire to eventually step away at a time when the results of your tenure — including current and recent performance — are extraordinary.»

The company was recently named by Ookla as the Best Mobile Network in the US, and reported record growth and earnings in its second quarter 2025 financial results, with over 130 million customers. On the business side, T-Mobile also recently announced that it will be the official telecommunications services provider for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

(Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

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Gopalan was brought on as T-Mobile’s COO in March 2025 after serving as CEO of Deutsche Telekom’s Germany business. At that point, he had also been a member of the T-Mobile board for five years. In his email, Sievert referred to Gopalan as one of his closest advisers and confidants on the board, sharing responsibility for the company’s successes.

According to sources at T-Mobile, Sievert had Gopalan’s succession in mind when he recruited him for the COO job, a role in which he’s been active for just six months.

«I knew then, after working with Srini for many years, that he’d be the right person to lead T-Mobile into the future,» Sievert wrote, adding that making this type of transition in the middle of a successful period puts the company in a better position. «That’s something that a lot of organizations get wrong.»

Sievert took over the CEO position from John Legere in 2020, who had held it for eight years.

In an email to CNET, Jason Leigh, senior research manager of 5G and mobility research at IDC, put the timing into perspective, noting that some CEOs get long in the tooth or stay past their prime. «Sievert is giving Gopalan a nicely wrapped housewarming present rather than a chaotic problem that needs to be fixed,» Leigh wrote.

Sievert’s shift isn’t the first recent management shake-up at T-Mobile. Ulf Ewaldsson, president of technology, and Callie Field, president of the business group, will have both left the company by the end of September.

Leigh noted that while Ewaldsson and Field were replaced by tenured leaders (John Saw and Andre Almeida), it still amounts to a loss of institutional knowledge. «All those positives aside, it is worth keeping an eye on the outflow of talent,» Leigh wrote. «That’s a lot of leadership to ‘lose’ in a short period of time.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 16, #889

Here are some hints — and the answers — for the NYT Connections puzzle for Nov. 16, #889.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a fun one. As a pop-culture junkie and game lover, I enjoyed the purple category. If you need help sorting the answers into groups, you’re in the right place. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Different strokes for different folks.

Green group hint: Ho-hum.

Blue group hint: Flags often qualify.

Purple group hint: Do not pass Go.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Technique.

Green group: Run-of-the-mill.

Blue group: Stripy things.

Purple group: Words on Monopoly squares.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is technique. The four answers are approach, method, philosophy and school.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is run-of-the-mill. The four answers are banal, everday, humdrum and pedestrian.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is stripy things.The four answers are barcode, IBM logo, rugby shirt and zebra.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is words on Monopoly squares. The four answers are avenue, parking, railroad and tax.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Nov. 16 #623

Here are hints — and answers — for the NYT Strands puzzle for Nov. 16, No. 623.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is tough. It’s a weird theme, and some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Around it goes.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: They’re often on a roll.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CARE, SCARE, CRASS, SWAT, PELL, HELL, SCAR, HALT, STENT, HALTS, TENT, POLL, LOTS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

FOIL, SCARF, SHAWL, STOLE, FLATBREAD, CELLOPHANE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is THATSAWRAP. To find it, start with the T that’s three letters up from the bottom of the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.