Cable Cowboy (eBook)

John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business

Mark Robichaux (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2002 | 1. Auflage
310 Seiten
Wiley (Verlag)
978-0-471-43432-0 (ISBN)

Infos

An inside look at a cable titan and his industry
John Malone, hailed as one of the great unsung heroes of our age by some and reviled by others as a ruthless robber baron, is revealed as a bit of both in Cable Cowboy. For more than twenty-five years, Malone has dominated the cable television industry, shaping the world of entertainment and communications, first with his cable company TCI and later with Liberty Media. Written with Malone's unprecedented cooperation, the engaging narrative brings this controversial capitalist and businessman to life. Cable Cowboy is at once a penetrating portrait of Malone's complex persona, and a captivating history of the cable TV industry. Told in a lively style with exclusive details, the book shows how an unassuming copper strand started as a backwoods antenna service and became the digital nervous system of the U.S., an evolution that gave U.S. consumers the fastest route to the Internet. Cable Cowboy reveals the forces that propelled this pioneer to such great heights, and captures the immovable conviction and quicksilver mind that have defined John Malone throughout his career.

Autor

MARK ROBICHAUX is the executive editor of Broadcasting & Cable magazine. From 1989 to 2001, he wrote feature stories as a staff reporter at the Wall Street Journal, covering, among other things, the cable TV industry, small business and alligator farmers. While on book leave in 1999, he was awarded a fellowship at the Media Studies Center in New York.

Inhalt

Introduction.

1. License to Steal.

2. Running the Show.

3. Cash Flow.

4. Thrilla in Manila.

5. Overgrown Monster.

6. Cable Cosa Nostra.

7. Five Hundred Channels.

8. Nice Try, My Friend.

9. Chasing Too Many Rabbits?

10. Dr. Kevorkian.

11. Death of a Cowboy.

12. Trojan Horse?

13. What Pop Would Have Wanted.

14. Give Me Liberty.

15. Déjà Vu.

Epilogue.

Acknowledgments.

Notes.

Index.

Rezensionen

Robichaux, an editor of the Wall Street Journal's "Weekend"section, covered cable television for the paper from 1989 to 2001.Here he draws on interviews and published sources to produce awell-written account of John Malone. In the early 1970's, at theyoung age of 29, Malone took over a small cable company on the edgeof bankruptcy known as Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCl), which headeptly turned around and in 1998 sold to AT&T for $48 billion,making it the largest media merger in history. The author weaves anintricate tale of the cable industry and TCI as he reveals thebrilliant deal-making strategies that built the largest cablecompany in the world. A typical strategy would be to swap stock,which defers recognition of profit on the deal whereby taxes wouldnot have to be paid. Using these tactics, Malone acquired hundredsof companies and was viewed as a monopolist, creating a politicalbacklash in Washington that caused him to be called Darth Vader,Genghis Khan, and the Godfather rolled into one. Readable and wellresearched, this work is unauthorized but was written with Malone'scooperation. Recommended for media collections in public librariesand those interested in the "art of the deal." --BellindaWise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY (LibraryJournal, January 15, 2003)

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 31.10.2002
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Wirtschaft
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Journalistik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management
• Schlagworte: Business & Management • Business & Society • Kabelfernsehen • Wirtschaft • Wirtschaft u. Gesellschaft • Wirtschaft u. Management
• ISBN-10: 0-471-43432-9 / 0471434329
• ISBN-13: 978-0-471-43432-0 / 9780471434320