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Books I've Published
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Articles I've Written
Books
2oth Anniversary edition
Cable Cowboy
John Malone and the rise of the modern Cable-TV business
Cable Cowboy, first published in 2002, tells the story of John Malone’s early and unpredictable rise to become the leader of the cable-TV industry. Born in a small town in Connecticut, he climbed his way through Yale, the legendary Bell Labs, McKinsey & Co., then befriended a deep-in-debt cowboy who would become his best friend and business partner. Told in a lively style with exclusive details, the story shows how an unassuming strand of copper coaxial cable wire started as a backwoods antenna service and became the digital nervous system of the U.S., an evolution that gave U.S. consumers television, telephone and the fastest route to the Internet.
More Information
For more than five decades John Malone has dominated the cable television business, influencing technology, entertainment and communications — first with his cable-TV company, Tele-communications Inc. and later with Liberty Media. His investments make him a key decision-maker at the largest companies across the media universe today: Discovery-Warner Bros, Charter-Spectrum, Formula One, LiveNation, SiriusXM, the Atlanta Braves, and more.
Cable Cowboy is a portrait of Malone and his strategy, told through the sweeping saga of risk-taking pioneers who transformed the humble coaxial cable-TV wire into a fiber-broadband pipe to transport the Internet. A single wire could deliver voice, video and data. New services such as Amazon, Facebook and Netflix would ride on these wires, and apps the early builders could never have imagined. The cable wire hung on poles across far-flung towns by those pioneering “cable cowboys” made possible the digital platforms that we use daily to entertain, educate and inform ourselves.
Written with Malone's unprecedented cooperation in 2002, this engaging narrative brings a controversial capitalist and businessman to life. Cable Cowboy reveals the forces that propelled this pioneer to such great heights, capturing the quiet conviction and quicksilver mind that have defined John Malone throughout his career.