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John Malone The Full D7 Session


RedDaruma

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This is a great Malone interview. Pretty long at 1hr and 42 minutes though

 

feynmanresearch,

 

Thanks for the link, that's a great video.  Hearing about his 20% in Fox News and his part in Time Warner was interesting.  Cable Cowboys talks about how Malone has been efficient with taxes over the years in part because of interest.  This video provided a lot more information about his tax expertise.  These types of statements helped explain his thought process:

The government is your partner for life, they just don't get to come to all the meetings.

How do I structure the deal such that I have a partner [the government] if it doesn't work?

The government is your partner, you just don't want them taking their share out early.

 

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Has anyone worked out what his current stock holding allocations are?

 

Is that very important/useful?

 

He hasn't bought anything in open market, which means he doesn't consider anything super cheap.

( see http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000937797&owner=exclude&count=40&hidefilings=0 )

He hasn't sold anything in open market, which does not mean much, since a lot of his holdings is supervoting which he won't sell. And he's very rich, so he doesn't have to sell even if he thinks something is overvalued.

 

You could look at where he got rid of his supervoting shares, but he only did it for LTRPA/B, so that's not very interesting either.

 

You could argue that he likes LBTYA/B/K and LILA/K since he's gonna take the shares in C&W merger.

 

Does LGF purchase by Discovery/LBTYA indicate that LGF shares are very cheap? I don't know.

 

IMHO, you just go through the Liberty soup and pick what you like. Or just pick everything and mix it up like he does. ;) I doubt his proportions are "best" in terms of future returns.

 

 

Probably someone will answer your question directly though.  8)

 

Take care

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There's an interview with Malone here:

 

http://www.multichannel.com/class-professor-malone/395571

 

Thanks, Liberty!

 

So I mean when everybody talks how about ESPN would do great as a standalone service, well, they get about 20% reach at $10, or whatever it is, and they wouldn’t have a business. That’s why they don’t unbundle. Now, if you took all the Disney content and you could create an over-the-top with the network … you might be big enough to have something that might reach 70% penetration of households with an affiliate fee that, therefore, could be low enough.

 

This is what Apple is struggling with right now. Can they find enough stuff — cheap enough but good enough — that they can offer a service that’s better than the cable bundle, right?

 

For nuggets like these I love Malone interviews. I'm always wondering why he is willing to share his strategic views (sometimes too willing in my opinion).

 

Ben Thompson wrote about ESPN and the cable bundle quite a while ago and came to similar conclusions:

 

The truth is that the current TV system is a great deal for everyone.

  • Networks earn much more per viewer than would be sustainable under a la carte pricing
  • Networks are incentivised to create (or in ESPN’s case, buy rights to) great programming; making your content “must-watch” lets you raise your affiliate fees
  • Viewers get access to multiple channels that are hyper-focused on specific niches. Sure, folks complain about paying for those niches, but only because they don’t realize others are subsidizing their particular interests
  • Cable companies know the cable TV business, and would prefer to put up with customer disgruntlement over rising prices than become dumb pipes

Cable TV is socialism that works; subscribers pay equally for everything, and watch only what they want, to the benefit of everyone. Any “grand vision” Apple, or any other tech company, has for television is likely to sustain the current model, not disrupt it directly.

 

This was – and still is – a very lucid observation which, I think, not even Apple was fully aware of at the time. They certainly are now. And the existence of an opposing mainstream view is one of several reasons why I think cable companies are still great investment opportunities.

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Q&A with Malone:

 

http://variety.com/2016/biz/news/john-malone-brian-roberts-charter-time-warner-cable-merger-comcast-1201778366/

 

Rose elicited a candid response when he pressed Malone about whether he regretted selling his Tele-Communications Inc. empire to AT&T in 1999. “Looking back on it, was that a mistake? Hell yes,” Malone replied. “But that’s one that maybe I get to see it again” with the newly enlarged Charter, he said.

 

Comcast boss Roberts displayed a great sense of humor in his remarks on stage and a sporting demeanor throughout night.

 

“John, this is the Bar Mitzvah you never thought you were going to have,” he quipped. Roberts explained that the Jewish rite of passage for adolescent boys involves presents. “I’m giving you Time Warner Cable for your Bar Mitzvah,” Roberts said, to a big laugh from the crowd.

 

On a more serious note, Roberts and Malone exchanged the highest mogul-to-mogul compliments. Roberts called Malone his biggest mentor and role model after his own father, the late Comcast founder Ralph Roberts. Malone sounded like a father figure in telling Rose: “I’m so proud of Brian Roberts and what a fabulous job he’s done with Comcast.”

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Nice to hear, how he openly supports Trump.

 

I think he supports some of his policies. I do too (lower corporate taxes I have nothing against, though the way to get there is a different question...). I agreed with some George W. Bush policies too. Pretty different from being a supporter of either guys.. Malone won't go on TV and say negative things about almost anyone, not his style. Go to Barry Diller for that:

 

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/07/12/barry-diller-on-trump-hopefully-will-be-over-soon.html

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Nice to hear, how he openly supports Trump.

 

I think he supports some of his policies. I do too (lower corporate taxes I have nothing against, though the way to get there is a different question...). I agreed with some George W. Bush policies too. Pretty different from being a supporter of either guys.. Malone won't go on TV and say negative things about almost anyone, not his style. Go to Barry Diller for that:

 

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/07/12/barry-diller-on-trump-hopefully-will-be-over-soon.html

 

Would be a terrible idea for someone who does a lot of M&A in the content industry to go on TV and talk trash about Trump given the rumors about AT&T and Time Warner.

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