Cable Cowboy

John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business

By: Mark Robichaux

Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray

Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

An inside look at a cable titan and his industry

John Malone, hailed as one of the great unsung heroes of our age by some and reviled by others as a ruthless robber baron, is revealed as a bit of both in Cable Cowboy. For more than 25 years, Malone has dominated the cable television industry, shaping the world of entertainment and communications, first with his cable company, TCI, and later with Liberty Media. Written with Malone's unprecedented cooperation, the engaging narrative brings this controversial capitalist and businessman to life. Cable Cowboy is at once a penetrating portrait of Malone's complex persona, and a captivating history of the cable TV industry.

Told in a lively style with exclusive details, the audiobook shows how an unassuming copper strand started as a backwoods antenna service and became the digital nervous system of the US, an evolution that gave US consumers the fastest route to the Internet. Cable Cowboy reveals the forces that propelled this pioneer to such great heights, and captures the immovable conviction and quicksilver mind that have defined John Malone throughout his career.

©2003 Mark Robichaux (P)2019 Tantor

Potential to be a great story - let down

John Malone is clearly one of the all time greats of business. Not just because of his strategic success in a highly competitive industry (cable) and also his financial achievements (billionaire) but because of his focus on financial engineering and tax arbitrage solutions. I think the book could have focused much more on some of the un

The audiobook was a bit try (the person narrating it - the cadence) so 3*. But the underlying story was so good - it pushed up my overall rating to 4*.

This is a solid, good book that had the potential to be a great book (but was not) due to the underlying person on whom it is based.

Great Book

Super interesting and very well read. Lots of history around the whole cable industry.

Solid audiobook

Great business lessons

Really good practical frugal business lessons from a moment in time A lot can be learned by how the loan structured deals

Just ok

Starts great Drifts into details about deals at the end Lots of details about his stock deals Good listening.

I haven’t listen to an audiobook this quickly in a long time

Great book if you like reading about business biographies. Malone flies under the radar but for the people to know about them they tend to own all of these different tracking stocks. This is a great history and probably one of the few books That will ever be written about him. Honestly there could be a sequel written because a lot as happened since then

complicated with so much going on!

this is the type of book you might need to read more than once to truly understand everything that happened.
I tried this on paper first. but it wasn't getting er done, so thankfully for me it was available on audible.
didn't like: some of the information they chose to include? like who cares. complicated terms. needed a reference dictionary if you're not familiar with all the terms and their meanings.
liked: fascinating story. sets the scene in history for the luxuries we have now, both in internet, cable and streaming. titans of the industry.

Good Bio of John Malone

Good bio of John Malkne and cable industry. Not exceptionally written or performed, but if you're interested in how Malone succeeded, this gives you a good timeline.