YouSaid · the spoken record

John Malone

lines on the record
57
first
2025-09-04
most recent
2025-09-04
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “No question, it was a risky business. And I learned the hard way how to manage risk. And how to isolate risk. You know, the banks loved it once you were predictable. And nothing drove economics like scale. So it was very simple economic equation, build scale, isolate risk. If you were going to do an acquisition or a big build, finance it separately, have watertight bulkheads as many and as much as you could. I had a mentor by the name of Moses Shapiro. He used to teach me elements of the Talmud and he said one of the biggest lessons is ask yourself the question if not. You know, if something doesn't work, where are you at? Are you dead?”

    2025-09-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Liberal Media Bias, Trump & Taming Big Tech with Cable Impresario John Malone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “Yeah, well, technology failure and getting promoted up in big organizations is not unusual. Personal financial failure. Is what the driver was. It wasn't reputational. It was financial, and that's because my folks had graduated and married in the heat of the Depression. And they were afraid of banks. My mother kept all of her cash, some paychecks going back 30, 40 years in a coal stove. And they were just very nervous about financial distress.”

    2025-09-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Liberal Media Bias, Trump & Taming Big Tech with Cable Impresario John Malone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “Another huge motivator. It's called fear of failure. Of course, I had a young family. And I really didn't have a choice. We had to make it work.”

    2025-09-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Liberal Media Bias, Trump & Taming Big Tech with Cable Impresario John Malone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “Yeah, no, TCI was in horrible shape. It probably had set the Harvard Business School record for debt leverage. So it had managed to get itself way over levered. What attracted me was the people. You know, I joined the Motley crew out there. Most of the guys said not gotten a college education They were more military trained, self-taught. And this group of entrepreneurs, you know, didn't know that they were broke. They didn't know that they were virtually bankrupt. And it was struggling through in the trenches that group of guys who many of whom those who are still living. Still involved in my various companies. So I'm partners with a number of them. So it was the relationships that drove me.”

    2025-09-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Liberal Media Bias, Trump & Taming Big Tech with Cable Impresario John Malone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “Cowboy, you weren't well, first of all. I have to combat the silver spoon. I worked my whole life. I had a work scholarship. All the way through. And even graduate school was $400 a month.”

    2025-09-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Liberal Media Bias, Trump & Taming Big Tech with Cable Impresario John Malone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “TCI, Bob Magnus And I ended up falling in love with the concept and getting my family out of the New York metro And we moved to Denver in 72. So here I was a PhD. From Yale”

    2025-09-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Liberal Media Bias, Trump & Taming Big Tech with Cable Impresario John Malone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “Well, I started my career as a technology guy at Bell Labs, AT&T for a while, and then McKinsey. And from McKinsey, I ended up as a consultant for technology companies, one of which was a company called General Instruments, which had just bought a company called Gerald Electronics. And the company was a mess, and I was asked to go straighten it out. And that got me into the cable business because they were manufacturing, designing, building, and financing cable systems. And one of my customers was a company called Telecommunications Inc. in Denver.”

    2025-09-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Liberal Media Bias, Trump & Taming Big Tech with Cable Impresario John Malone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT