目送飞鸿对《Cable Cowboy》的笔记(10)

Cable operators could gradually write off the cost of their systems over a number of years, allowing them to reduce the leftover profits they reported as earnings and thereby sheltering a healthy f...

When Malone walked into the office that first day, the receptionist directed him to his new desk, built for two employees. The other McKinsey executive, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., who, 25 years later,...

Once TCI had finished writing down the value of its assets to shelter cash flow from taxes, it would have to begin paying income taxes and keep on paying interest, and there would be nothing left t...

Despite the explosion of new content, most operators of cable systems paid little attention to programming; it was merely a commodity that brought in new viewers, not a value chain all its own. But...

He demanded that cable networks either allow TCI to invest in them directly, or they had to give TCI deep discounts on price since TCI bought in bulk. In return for most-favored-nation-status on pr...

As part of the plan for Liberty, TCI created a new class of stock, called a tracking stock, which would be distributed to TCI shareholders and give them an interest in Liberty’s earnings. But agai...

Hindery’s favorite analogy for TCI’s problems was that TCI was a gas station company acting like a pipeline company. Pipelines deliver fuel in bulk. But gas stations sell it to retail customers, ...

What the cable operators failed to realize at the moment was how truly strong their position was. Only the cable industry’s fat pipes, where the electrical signals danced along lines passing 95 pe...

Malone’s children were not covetous of wealth, a fact that pleased him but did not surprise him. In fact, his son and daughter had settled into a comfortable and surprisingly middle-class life. Af...

Malone wanted to go along, and he stopped himself from saying what he really wanted to say: “Here’s why you should mess with it, Mike: You’ve just issued more than 400 million new shares of AT&T...