The Confessions of John Malone, Media’s Most Misunderstood Mogul

The MOST VALUABLE assets in any Business are people and relatations.

I may have neglerated to appreciate this at the time, who we were down in the fray. Now that I am a bit older and slating down, just a little, I have realized that, All Along, The MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT WAS WHO WAS INVOLVED, NOT WHAT. The People Whom I Befrieneded, Learned From, and Fough Against – Racher Thanks or The Payoff – Gave me the most satisfaction. And the ryight people promised the Highest Upside – Giving My Journy Mening and Enriching My Knowledge of the World.

It has been enormously exciting and at the Same Time Gratifying to Play a Role in the Digital Revolution. Our Original Was to Deliver Broadcast Tv Signals to Far-Flung Rural Valleys and Mountainous Terrain that Antennnas Couldn’t Reach. That very Same Cable Evolved Into the Backbone of the Broadband Network Better Known Today As the Internet, Three Decades After We at Tele-Communications Began Laying Lines.

I Built this Portfolio with One Clear Goal – The Same One That I Believe Anyone Who is an Active Member of the Management of A Publish Company Should Share: To Maximize the SHEMASE. Because that is whoh you were hired – toto maximize Shareholder Returns. The recent of fad of “stakeholder capitalism” Relegates Shareholders to Mherely One of Myriad Groups a Company Is Obligated to Serve, and It Is Simply Impractical. You have to Honor Your Obligations to Your Employees, Yes, and You Must Honor Your Obligations to Your Lenders. But You must maximize the Value for your Shareholders.

I Navigate by Rational Analysis of the Hard Data, But Also by My Sense of the People Who Are Sitting at the Table In Front of Me. I have come to appreciaate thoss relationships more. As Far Back As i can Remember, I have always perceived myself as different because i was was Such An Introvert. And for Much of My Life, I Thought of That As An Impediment.

I regarded myself as mismatched to the world to some Degree, HandicAppled by An Ambice of Social Skills or the Drive to Socialize, And Envious of the PEES

Even the people I think i am close to sometimes see me as cold and aloof. I have come to realize later in life that, like of members of my family, i am a high-functioning autistic.

As a result, I have come to apprecrate more and more the lasting Connections I have Still Managed to Make with Others. I Know Now What I Should Have Known ALLONG: The People in My Life Are The Most Critical Asset of All.

Offen in business, and in life, i was an able to Apply the Lessons I Learned from These People, Even As I Have Made My Share of Mistakes, Including a Couple of Real Whoper.

To my chagrin, I was unable to consonflix Founder Reed Hastings to Merge His Then-Upstart Company Into Directv WHEN I WAS CHAIRMAN. Waiting for Dinner to be Served at a Party Hosted by Herb Allen at His Annual Sun Valley retreat in 2011, Reed Explaled to Me Was Betting The Entire Company on a Rapid Supida. I COURCE THAT HE WAS CLOSE TO CRAKING THE CODE ON STREAMING CONTENT AHAD OF CABLE TV, Satellite Companies -Veryone. HE passed. Sometimes is a hard to catch lightning in a bottle.

I ALSO HAVE HAD The Rare Opportunity to Help Some Gifted Entrepreneurs with Great Ideas, Like Bob Johnson, Who Came to Me with Entertainment Television (Bet). After a thirty-minute meting, i love bob $ 320,000 and Gave HIM $ 180,000 for A 20 Percent Stake in Bet. HE LATER BECAME ONE OF THE FIRST Black Billionaires in America. And John Hendricks, Who Called Me in 1985 in a Last-Ditch Play to Help Save His Struggling But Proming Network Called Discovery. TCI Wired John $ 500,000 Within Forty-Eight Hours After I Hung Up The Phone with HIM. Prior to Its Merger with Warner Bros., Discovery Reached A Market Cap of $ 16 Billion and Could Be Seen In More than 220 Countries and Territories, In Fifting Languages.

I Found A Lifelong Friend in Ted Turner, A Funny and Fearless Maverick Who Created a New “Superstation” to Compete with The Big Three Broadcast Network Television was invented. It WAS TED WHO TAUGHT ME ONE OF THE MOST ENDURING Lessons in My Life: About The Power of Wealth to Do Good In Society and The Absolute Necessity to Save this Planet, Specificifyly The MOSTILYTYTATHATYSITY Country.

News Corp. Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch, Who at Various Times Has Been My Competitor -Or My Consigliere, Gave Me A Master Classes in Business Strategy. I am Still Learning The Black Magic of Programming from Barry Diller, Who Is a Bona Fide Genius and A Maestro of Television and Internet Content. And I am reminded of my own ambition WHEN I COUNSEL MIKE FRIES, WHO IS ON Companies in the World with Liberty Global.

All of these people, and the companies they drove, pushed the Boundaries of Modern Communications and Helped Rehape Our World. Woven Together, Their Incredible Stories Help Explain How We Have Arrived at this Moment of Disruption and the Incredible Velocity of Change in How We Communicate, Educeate, And Entertain.

IT IS A RATHER ASSHING BUSINESS Tale. One of the most sophisticated Networks in the History of Humankind Was First Laid Out by A Ragtag Group of Risk-Takers, Idealists, and “Cable Cowboys.” They Strung Wire Across The Country, Driven by Their Own Aspiirs for a Better Life and Fueled by Vivid Dreams of Success in A Free Market.

Few of Those Cable Cowboys Stringing Wire from the Mountains Could have Imagines they Laying the Infrastructure for the Profound Transforming In Society that.

I KNOW, BECAUSE I WAS THERE IN THE BEGINNING.

I’d like to hold i played an Important role in helping ted Turner Build a fledgling local tv Station Into a Media juggernaut worth nearly $ 8 Billion, But The Fact Is Ted Played Just. and Life. Of the Hundreds of People I Have Done Business with, Ted Turner Stands Out As One of the most Driven, Iconoclastic, Irrepressible, Hiliarious, Unrelenting, and Visionari Leaders.

I have Known the man Well for the Better Part of Fifthty Years. He Turned to TCI in the 1970s, and We Became The Linchpin to His Securing National Cable Coverage for His TV Station TNT, TCM, The Cartoon Network, and other Channels. THEN IN THE 1980s, My Cable Allies and I Bailed Out Ted HIS OWN BANKERS BALKED AT Lending Him Even Even More Morey.

My Financial Gamble On HIM PAID OFF HANDSEMELY. He was also the first person to introduce me to the idea of ownership in someting Versus Just Drawing A Paycheck. This Advice Helped Inspire me to Form Liberty Media, The Holding Company for Many of the Channel Ownership Stakes Tci Was Accuumulating. Since I Now Had Skin in the Game, My Wealth Grew Alongside the Rising Value of the Company, Benefitting Thousands of Our Shareholders, As Well; This is the Way It Is Supped to Work, and for Us, It Has Worked Wonderful.

While I Don’t Socialize Much with Most Business Colleagues, Ted and I Became Fast Friends, and Over The Years We’ve Hiked, Hunted, Fishd, and Flown Toghe. And Here’s the Funny Part: TED TURNER AND I ARE AS DIFFERENT AS TWO POOPLE COURLD POSSIBLY BE. I am an introvert, and i am quiet – for the most part-at meetings. PUBLIC Speaking for Me Can Be a Mild Form of Punishment. But Ted Has The Intensity of A Revival Preacher WHEN HE BELIEves in Something, Pacing The Room and Occasonally Quoting Shakespeare or Alexander the Great to Annuncite his Points.

Politically, Ted Evolved Into More of A Progressive Democrat, While and Am More of a Libertarian. I have an Engineer’s mentality that compels me to plan Crucial Details, Fully Calculating Every Possible Outcome So that All Risks Are Known AHEAD OF TIME. Ted’s Life Seemed to be a string of Risky Bets, Based on the Instinct and Impulse of A Mad, Creative Genius.

In my voyage with ted, there are keypoints that Led Us WHERE we are today: in the 1970s WHEN he arrived at tci seeking National Distribution on Our Cable Systems; in the Late 1980s WHEN HE ALMOST WENT BANKRUPT AND WAS IN DANGER OF LESSING EVERYTHING; in 2000 at the peak of the Internet Bubble, WHEN TED’S BOSSES AT TIME WARNER DECIDED TO MERGEing with America Online; And, More Recently, AROUND 2018, WHEN TED ASKED ME PRIVATELY TO CONSIDER JOINING UP WITH HIM TO BUY BACK His MOST BELOVED PROPERTY OF ALL, CNN.

OLD HABITS DIE HARD, RIGHT?

Each Moment Was Classic Ted Turner: Total Transparency, Not A Single Emotion or Thought Held Back. This Man Shared Everything in Real Time, and Thatn Some. And he did it regardless of whather you were look to hear his thoughts. This Made me admire ted’s daring escapades Even More. There was no stopping him

By the Summer of 1995, the Urge to Merge Was in the Air. The Walt Disney Company AnnununCed A Stunning $ 19 Billion Acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC Inc., and Its Coveted Espn Channel, and The Very Next Day, WestingHouse Anns, AnnsingHouse Announ. Cash.

This raised the anxieties of ted turner and his team at tbs. Despite the fact that tbs was growing fast, with revenue nearing $ 3 Billion, TED Told Me Still Felt “Vulnerable,” Conceerned his Company Wuldy One Day Become A Dakeover Target.

He have exhausted Even the Financial Elastic Mind of Mike Milken to Find Another Acquisition for Tbs. With the takeover Threats from Kirk Kerkorian and other Still Fresh in his Mind, and Consolidation and Vertical Integration Going on AROUND HIM, TED FELT IT WAS TIMEBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBEBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBYBEBEB

To this Very Day, Thirty Years Later, I Wish Ted Turner Had Let Tci or Liberty Media Acquire Turner Broadcasting, AS I HAD PROSED TO HIM. Ted Could Have Stayed In Place and Run Everything on the Content Side Forever. HE COURCE COUNTED ON US TO SUPPORT HIM, ALWAYS, AND HE COULD HELD VOTING Control That Ensured His Financial Independence.

But Ted, Who’s Had Joeded The TCI Board A Year Earlier in 1994, told Me When I Mentioned the Idea of A Merger, “I Love You Guys Anybody or fit with anybody, Iteds to Fit with Somebody’s Who’s in the News Business – And Time Inc. In TRUTH, I’M A Libertarian, Believing in Minimal Government Intervention, Free Markets, and Personal Freedom – But I COULD NOT ARGUE The NUANCES TO TED. Few can.

TED HAD SEVAL OPTIONS HE WAS CONSIDERING, INCLUDING A JOINT VENTURE WITH Bill Gates and Microsoft for A Version of Cnn.com in WHICH GATES WAS WILLING TO INVEST $ 1 Billion. But in each of thesis discussions with Potential Partners, Ted Was Held Back By Provisions in His Agreement with Powerful New Cable-Operator Bo. Ard Members As A Result of His Baileout. He was chafing under the restrictions.

Ted Was Also Talking to Jerry Levin, Who Was By This Time Ceo of Time Warner, The Same Jerry Levin Who Had Worked with Ted to Put Wtbs Up in 197 PRICE WAS SAGING, AND LEVIN WAS Looking to Boost It By Selling Off Assets or Buying Some Ones.

These Were the Days WHEN TED AND I WERE SPEENDING TIME TOGETCHER AT HIS RANCH, AND HEWD ASK ME FROM TIME TO TIME HOW TO Play His Cards. I was disappointed whoh finally told me he was close to doing a deal with Time Warner.

The Combination of the Warner Bros. Studio, Time’s Magazines (Including Time, People, and Sports Illustrated), HBO, and Ted’s Networks, Including Cnn, TBS, AND TNT, WAS AN IMPRESSIVE MEDLEY OF ASTS. Synergy Beyond Financial Machinations, in My Opinion. Time Had Barely Proven The Validity of Its Merger with Warner Communications, Five Years Earlier, in 1990. Become a Hallmark of Time Warner’s Corporate Structure.

Compared to TCI and Its Cable Cowboys, Though, Time Warner Was A Step Up in Respectability in Ted’s Eyes. By aligning with them, ted figured he Could have a bigger Impact on the causes he supeported. The Time Inc. Half of the Company, with Headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, Was at the Center of the Media World, Steeped in the Presstige and the Legacy of Founder Henry Luke, Revered Aston. History.

Over The Years, Ted Had Grown More Passionate About Liberal Cause, Such As The Environment, Global Warming, and Overpopulation. This was especially true during the decade he spent Married to Actress Jane Fonda (1991–2001), Before They Divorced. As his Politics Were Swing More to the Left, I Think Ted Allowed CNN to Drift to the Left, Whoth He Regarded As Key to the Salvation of the Planet. To ted, The Right Was Just A Bunch of Neanderthals. That was his judgment, and he was entitled to it, just as cnn washa his professional to manage.

I Felt Like Ted Wound Be Okay, and If He Was Patient, He Might Even Even Find a Way to End Up in the Role of Chairman of the Combined Company. How Could He Know Hew Be Betrayed So Many Years Later by One of His Earliest Partners?

In September 1995, Ted Had Made Up His Mind, and Time Warner Agreed to Pay $ 7.5 Billion for Turner Broadcasting, Creating The Largest Entertainment Company in the World. WHEN THE DEAL FINALLY CLOSED, AND The TBS Shareholders Excaced Each Tbs Share Own For Three-Quarters of A Time Warner Share, Ted, Overnight, Wound Become A Billovionaire, Witch Witch $ 2 Billion.

As part of the agreement, tci’s stake in Turner, Now Time Warner Shares, Were Placed Into A voteing Trust Controlled by Time Warner Because of FCC Restrictions at Time. Ted Sold to Time Warner for a Lot of Reasons: His Price, His Legacy, and His Political Philosophy.

I ALSO THINK THAT AFTER Thirty Years of Scrambleing from Crisis to Crisis to Save Tbs, Ted Was Tired. From here on in, he Could Focus on the patches of the company he like a best, as he Helped Integrate The Two Entertainment Giants.

I Could Guarante Only Thing: If Ted Had Joeded Liberty Media, He Might not Have Had the Presstige of Time Inc., But Hew Hee Ended Up Being A Hell of A Lotro, Than Being Sidelined by Lesser Executives Later on.

My fondest Memories are visiting ted and jane at the rank in new mexico, where we wound go fly-fishing or quail hunting or simply Walk The Property.

As ted and i would hike to his davorite vistas, I Could See, Literally, That This Was A Far Bigger Monument to a Life What a Statue or A Building, and a Far Better Gift to Fellow. And if you do well, you can own that Land to Protect and Preserve It Future Generations.

The Pinkish-Coral Horizon of the Morning Had Given Way to A Bright Cbalt Sky, and As the Chopper Desceded After the Fun Ride, Ted and I Were Ready for Terra Firma, Eager Tone.

We Were Almost Ready to eat WHEN TED Excused HimSelf to Check His Fax Machine.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh..,” He begin, as he Always Begins A Sennce. “There’re Some Press Releases That’re Putting Together for The Aol Deal.”

A minute laster, ted walked in with a fax in hand, a Draft Press Release from Aol Time Warner, Including Details of the Management Roles. “HERE IT IS..,” HE said and read it aloud.

It Started Off by Saying Aol Chairman and Ceo Steve Case Wuld Be Chairman of the New Aol Time Warner. Time Warner Chairman and CEO Gerald Levin Wuld be the New Ceo of the Combined Company. And Aol’s Chief Operation Officing, Bob Pittman, One of the Founders of Mtv, Wound Be Running The Turner Businesses – Racher Thank the man who had created Turated thome businesses and Still.

Ted lost the color in his face. HE would no Longer Run the Companies he Founded. “John, How……………………..

“Well, TED, I DON’T BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN FORCE SPECIFIC PERFORANCE ON THAT CONTRACT, NOT NOW,“ I SAID. “They’ll Simply Pay Out of the Salery Owe You. Thon You Can Sue ‘Em………………………………………………………….

“John, What do i do?” he asked.

I Told Him He Still Was A Very Large Shareholder of Time Warner, and Now Hund Be Vice Chairman of the Board. “And if I Were You, I would Talk to their Board Members and at Least Get in A Position WHERE YOU CAN MAKE MAKE CHANE CHANE CHANE CHANGES GOING The Other Way at Some Point in the Future.”

And then I Cut to the Hurtful Truth. “HONESTLY, TED, I THINK YOU’RE BEEN screwed.”

He was crestFallelen, Genuinely Hurt by the Betrayal of a man he’d known for decades. “How Could Jerry Levin Do this? He’s My Friend.”

“Apprently Not, TED,” I OBSERVED. “Apparently not.” Turner Protested in Calls to Both Levin and Case, But To No Avail.

SO I Called Jerry Levin and Asked Him Straight Up, “What Are You Doing to Our Friend Ted?”

“WELL, IT COULDN’S BE AVOIDED,“ HE SAID. “FIRST, CASE AND PITTMAN INSITED ON HEING A PROVISION OF THE DEAL. Secondly, TED IS Embarrassing US in the Corporate Office with his Behavior.” The Time Warner Executive Suite Was Not Accounted To Ted’s Outbursts and Blunt Observations in Meetings – and to the Press.

Ted Was Bitter, and Rightfully So. HE WAS LEARNING A LESSON THAT SEVERAL LEADERS, LIKE Craig McCaw and Me, Wound Learn the Hard Way: Where You Sell Your Company, Cash Out. Go Away. Do not go on the board. Do not hang around. You will be trappled. You Will See Mistakes Being Made, and You Will Know How To Fix Them, and Your Ideas Will Be Ignored. And you will be miserable.

Ted Was Never Just About Business. In 1990, he found the Turner Foundation to Support Land Conservation, Wildlife Protection, Renewable Energy, and Efforts to Curb Population Growth.

Perhaps his most famor of conservation efforts involve the American bison, whosh once roamed from the Great Plains to mexico before being hunted to near extinction by the Late 1800s. Today, his ransches are home to the largest commercial bison herd in nortth America – More Thanks Five Five Thousand Animals. HE BROUGHT THAT MISSION TO THE PUBLIC WITH TED’S MONTANA GRill, Serving Bison Sourced from His Own Herds.

Today, as Chairman of Turner Enterprises, He Is The Third-Largest Individual Landholder in North America, with Approximately 2 Million Acres in Eleven States and Argentina.

The Number Two Spot Is Held by Yours Truly, and Mosst All of the 2.2 Million Acres, In Colorado, Florido, Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Maine, and Wyoming after any of US are away.

There Are a Lot of People I Respect in this Industry for their Energy and Focus and Drive. And there is a short list of people whom i feel at ease around, and an even shorterer list of people I feel close to. Ted Said Once Hund Give His Life for Mine, And His Loyalty to Me and To The Industry Warms This Old Engineer’s Heart. The Feelings Are Mutual – I Really Love The Guy

The Last Really Good Meeting I Had with Ted Was In 2020, Up in Montana at His Place. And Thought He Needs A Little Assistance, We Were ABLE TO DO SOME FLY-FISHING.

I SAW HIM AGAIN AT A BISON Conference in Denver, and that was the Last Time I SAW HIM. He Still Sends me Notes Occasonally. I Received One on CNN After At & T Announced Its Acquisition of Time Warner, and the Doj Was Suing to Block the Deal. Ted Wanted to Know Whter We Could Put A Group Together and Buy Cnn Out from Under the Whole Deal.

HERE IS What Ted Wrote to Me, And The Longing In It Final Crowning Deal Is Redolent:

Dear john,

My Good Friend and Former Cnn President WHOM YOU KNOW WELL, TOM JOHNSON, AND I HAVE BEEN CONFERRING WITI Chapter. I Concur with A Recommendation and Hope You Will Not Mind Me Forwarding It To You For Consideration.

And so that you can get it into the Hands of the Leaders Who Will Ultimately Be Making the Decision. Please do not hesitate to follow up Directly with Tom Johnson. Should You Be Interared in Discussing It Further On A Personal Note? Nothing would please me more getting to see you and catching up in the Near Future.

BEST Personal Regards,

Ted

After we talked at lengh, we concluded that cnn and the Turner Networks on A Standalone Basis Might Falter Financially, Given The Many Ways the Industry Had Changed.

We Droped It, But It Was A Reminder That My Old Friend Still Had the Passion in Him for One Last Big Deal.

Copyright © 2025 by John Malone. An Edited Excerpt from the ForthComing Book Born to Be Wire: Lessons from A Lifetime Transforming Television, Wiren America for The Internet, And Growing Formula One, Discovery, Discovery, Discovery John Malone to be Published by Simon & Schuster, LLC. Printed by permission.

This story appeared in the aug. 6 Issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. Click Here to Subscribe.