Cable Cowboy is a rollicking read that serves better as a primer for a fascinating industry than as a legitimate profile (or hagiography) of the man from whose eyes the history has unfolded. Robichaux lacks the incisive vigor that made Barbarians at the Gate so compelling (and sometimes frustrating) as a character study and the Caro-esque majesty of vision to more carefully connect the dots of the major players and landscapes not just with each other but with the overarching shift in how the world worked.
But to condemn this book for not adequately interrogating power or serving double duty as a treatise on America's technologically-driven shift from statism into modern neoliberal nationhood is unfair, because what it does do is take you through a whirlwind tour of a fascinating set of companies and operators, and their struggle against all takers — the public sector, the financiers, the relentless march of technological progress — to make money.
TCI — and John Malone — are most well-known for their approach to capital, and the book goes over the broad strokes a fair enough amount (albeit not enough to reallly cause any new revelations): a focus on lean capital efficiency, an aggressive love of financial instrumentation, an interest in deals qua deals more than areas of strategic investment. There was nothing noteworthy here.
What I found more fascinating — and what I think gets omitted in the SparkNotes version of TCI's growth and history — is how recurrent every company and player is over a sufficiently long timespan in a commoditized industry. Someone who you are at war with in 1983 is a joint venture partner in 1992; a sales connection in 1972 is a potential acquirer in 1977.
Cable Cowboy makes the industry, for lack of a less cheugy metaphor, look like Settlers of Catan: Malone's gift was neither a ruthless efficiency nor an unparalleled understanding of markets, but an uncanny knack for always finding a deal to be done to eke out a little bit of long-term margin, and never burning any bridges.
★★★★
Highlights
They killed the pig.
