In today’s episode, Kyle Grieve discusses the book Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business. He covers why and how John Malone was such a prodigious creator of value, how he aligned himself with shareholders, how he helped build his monopoly-like business, TCI, how he dealt with competitors and regulators, why he trained Wall Street to see value differently, why Malone despised paying taxes, how Malone engineered deals to enrich himself and shareholder simultaneously, and much more!
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
00:00 - Intro
07:41 - Why John Malone chose to work for TCI at a significant discount
09:52 - How Malone kept costs down to maximize cash flow
16:24 - How John Malone used his knowledge of scale and leverage to build TCI
19:08 - How John created his accounting terms to best display TCI's abilities to create value
27:57 - How Malone used his scale advantages to secure better rates from programmers
36:34 - The monopoly-like power that TCI could yield that featured its bargaining power
38:17 - How Malone created life-changing wealth for himself from the Liberty Media spin-off
42:54 - Why John invented the 500-channel offering and how it protected the cable industry
45:51 - Malone's tactics to try and divert attention away from TCI's monopoly-like power
50:58 - How John Malone quickly improved TCI's financial statements through industry consolidation
Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences.
BOOKS AND RESOURCES
SPONSORS
Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors:
HELP US OUT!
Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm