RALEIGH – Republic Wireless is about to become part of the DISH network but Relay – a company focused on a walkie-talkie type device – will not, will remain based in Raleigh, and no employees of the company will be affected by the sale, says its founder and CEO.
“I will remain CEO of our ongoing company, which will be renamed Relay, Inc. Our leadership structure remains the same including the same Board of Directors and same executive leadership team,” CEO Chris Chuang tells WRAL TechWire.
“[Our company will remain headquartered in Raleigh, where we will continue to operate. In fact, we are actively hiring in Raleigh and will continue to open up new positions throughout 2021 and beyond.”
As for Republic employees, Chuang said there will be no impact.
“This transaction is about a change in ownership of our Republic customer base and brand, not a change in our team,” Chuang explained.
“There are no layoffs associated with this deal, and in fact, our company will be growing in employee headcount size as we continue to hire new team members to support our exciting and fast-growing Relay business.”
DISH announced the acquisition of Republic Wireless – which has some 200,000 customers – on Monday. The deal is seen as part of a DISH effort to expand a wireless network it acquired as part of the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile.
Republic did not seek a buyer, Chuang said, but agreed to the deal after being approached by DISH and others.
“Republic has never proactively run a process to try and sell the business,” Chuang said. “Rather, Republic has consistently received strategic inbound interest from many large players in wireless over the years since it launched in late 2011.”
Chuang, who led the spinoff of Republic from Raleigh-based Bandwidth five years ago, remains very optimistic about the future of Relay.
“We are passionate about our mission to deliver wireless the way it should be: honest, simple, and affordable. We believe joining with DISH, which shares a similar ethos and is building out their own nationwide 5G network, will enable Republic to deliver even more value to more people,” Chuang explained.
“This transaction also will enable us to focus our ongoing company even more on our growing Relay business, he added. And Relay is growing.
“We are not disclosing revenue figures at this time, but, I can tell share that we’ve seen Relay monthly sales grow 7 times just in the last 6 months, and overall revenues have grown nearly 1600% within the last year.,” Chuang explained.
Financial terms of the Republic deal were not disclosed by DISH – and Chuang wouldn’t talk, either.
“No, I’m sorry, financial deal terms are not being disclosed,” he replied when asked.
