John C. Malone
John C. Malone
John C. Maloneis a billionaire American business executive, landowner and philanthropist. He served as chief executive officerof Tele-Communications Inc., a cable and media giant, for twenty-four years from 1973 to 1996. Malone is now chairman of Liberty Media, Liberty Global, and Liberty Interactive all which he is the majority owner, and also owns 49% of Starz Inc. and 29% of Discovery Communications.He was interim CEO of Liberty Media, until succeeded by former Oracle CFO Greg Maffei...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth7 March 1941
CountryUnited States of America
Synergies are something that the CEO basically has to force to happen, because organizations are, generally, like bodies in motion that tend to stay in motion. It's very hard to get big organizations to change. And it takes really a very powerful mandate to force things to happen.
I'm not an extreme tree-hugger. I do believe trees grow and are a useful agricultural product that can be harvested without damaging the ecology and wildlife.
Synergy is the driver. There are two levels of synergy: there are operating synergies, which, you know, you'd have to be stupid not to try to take advantage of, and then there are strategic synergies. In other words, in what positions you would be more sustainable, more long term, and so on.
The curse of the cable industry over all these years as an operating reality is that every year the debt goes up (and) all the money generated gets reinvested, and then some.
What you really are afraid of is that you're competing against somebody who is rich and irrational. I mean, it used to be a given, a saying in the industry: Don't ever bid against Rupert Murdoch for anything Rupert wants, because if you win you lose. You will have paid way too much.
The fact that equities are being sold down, despite the lowest interest rates in recent history, simply means that the market doesn't see growth ahead for -very many businesses.
The public doesnt particularly care for advertisements.
There's an old saying that the government is your partner from birth, but they don't get to come to all the meetings.
I think private ownership is generally superior to public because you care about the land more and it doesnt get trashed.
It will allow us to control all the communication needs of a household with one device.
Recently somebody said, "Hey, you lost weight," and I said, "Yeah, thirty-five pounds and three and a half billion dollars." So I'm quite a bit lighter and more flexible than I was.
You just have to be opportunistic, and try to figure out what creates value.. where the bottom is, what creates incremental value, and in what combinations.