John Malone

Nicknamed the Cable Cowboy, John Malone is known for his penchant for media deals and complicated corporate structures.From the 1970s to the 1990s, Malone built up cable TV firm TCI as right hand man to founder Bob Magness (d. 1996).Malone's first major deal was at TCI, where he became the CEO in 1973 at 29 years old, then sold the firm to AT&T for more than $50 billion in 1999. His Liberty Media, which owns the Atlanta Braves baseball team, closed a $4.4 billion acquisition of auto-racing league Formula 1 in January 2017. In March 2018, Malone's Discovery Inc. completed its $12 billion acquisition of cable TV firm Scripps.