Sprint has a new CEO starting today. But with the T-Mobile merger looming, Michel Combes may be job hunting soon.

Combes has landed on his feet in tight spots before. The French businessman got his previous job despite criticism at the time from France’s economy minister Emmanuel Macron, who is now its president.

And, if the T-Mobile merger leaves Combes without a job, he would be in line to collect his third severance deal in a row. He collected severance packages after a bit more than two years each as CEO of Alcatel-Lucent and then as CEO of Altice NV.

"It's good to be Michel," Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner said of Combes.​

Meanwhile, Combes is tasked with what Entner called a caretaker role, leading a company in the weird position of hoping to meld into its larger rival.

“Realistically, he’s baby-sitting the thing until the deal gets done,” said Jeffrey Wlodarczak, CEO of Pivotal Research Group.

Combes called that perception untrue.

Sprint's detailed plans for this year double its spending on its network and other investments, accelerate its roll-out of new stores and lay the footings for 5G technologies due to launch in about 12 months, among other things.

Combes cited his earlier roles at other telecom companies — 10 years at Orange/France Telecom and four years at Vodafone Europe.