UPDATE: Polls are now closed. Click here for the results.
The quarterfinals are over, and boy were there some surprises.
Perhaps most notably, Sprint’s Michel Combes edged just past T-Mobile’s John Legere to move into the final four. Combes was aided by a sustained social media campaign from Sprint, and he personally seemed to enjoy the competition. Combes extended a wager to Legere that the loser of the vote wear the other’s corporate colors, but Legere didn’t take him up on it. (Legere sat mostly on the sidelines of the vote despite his substantial social media following and his previous efforts to win the vote.)
But the matchup between Combes and Legere wasn’t where most of the action was. The rivalry that received the most votes—24,000 in total—was between executives from Ericsson and Intel. In the end, Ericsson’s North American chief, Niklas Heuveldop, just eked a win over Intel’s Sandra Rivera.
Now, though, the final four creates some interesting matchups: Ericsson’s Heuveldop will go up against one of his customers, Sprint’s Combes, while CTIA’s Meredith Attwell Baker faces off against Cisco’s CEO, Chuck Robbins.
Voting for this round will stretch through this weekend and will end around 10 a.m. Eastern time Monday. Then the final round of voting will run through Tuesday morning, when we’ll announce the winner of our weeklong “powerful people” tournament.
Thanks to everyone who voted, and good luck to these final contestants! Stay tuned to @FierceWireless for voting updates. – Mike | @mikeddano
