Credit: Sirius XM is one of the companies Malone controls via LMCA. Image source:Liberty Media Corporation Chairman John Malone has his hands in a lot of places in the cable, satellite, and digital worlds.
LMC is not a traditional company that makes things or provides a service. It's more of a holding company for a broad range of assets including the Atlanta Braves and Sirius XM . Malone's company also holds minority, but significant, shares in Live Nation Entertainment and a number of other lesser-known companies and minority equity investments in and Viacom . In many ways, LMC is a reflection of Malone's interests and a vessel for him to use to make investments.
Sirius XM is one of the companies Malone controls via LMCA. Image source:
How did Malone make his money?
Unlike some of his peers, Malone worked his way to his fortune. Born in 1941 in Milford, Conn., Malone earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and economics at Yale and a master's in industrial management from Johns Hopkins, where he later earned a Ph.D. in operations research.
Malone used those degrees to forge an impressive career. Liberty Media lists some of the highlights in his bio :
- Malone began his career in 1963 at Bell Telephone Laboratories (formerly a division of AT&T ), working in economic planning and research and development.
- In 1968, he joined McKinsey & Company.
- In 1970, he became a group vice president at General Instrument Corporation. He was later named president of Jerrold Electronics, a GI subsidiary.
- He served as director of the National Cable Television Association from 1974 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1993.
- From 1996 to March 1999, when Tele-Communications merged with AT&T, he was chairman and chief executive officer of TCI.
- From 1973 to 1996, Malone served as president and chief executive officer of TCI.
- He currently serves on the board of directors for the Cato Institute, Discovery Communications , Charter Communications , Expedia , and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp .
A part of Malone's fortune comes from when TCI was sold to AT&T for $48 billion, Fortune says. That transaction was huge -- the second largest in the United States up to that point -- but it was really just the jumping-off point for the mogul. He reportedly made over $1.5 billion personally on that deal
After that sale, Fortune added, Malone began to acquire real estate, becoming one of the largest landowners in the world, if not the largest. In 2012, Fortune put those holdings, which span the world, at 2.2 million acres.
What is John Malone's net worth?
Despite giving some of his fortune away, Malone still placed at No. 162 on the 2015 Forbes billionaires list , with an estimated wealth of $8.4 billion. That's a lot of money, but the billionaire may not be done yet, as Liberty Media remains very much in the mix to acquire more assets, especially in the wake of the collapsed deal between Time Warner Cable and Comcast.
In addition to his for-profit ventures, Malone has been an active philanthropist through his Malone Family Foundation . That organization has donated millions in pursuit of its goal "to improve access to quality education -- particularly at the secondary school level -- for gifted students who lack the financial resources to best develop their talents."
Malone may be a bit of a mystery compared with some of his higher-profile billionaire peers, but he has somewhat quietly built an empire and has made himself one of the richest people in the world.
3 Companies Poised to Explode When Cable Dies
Cable is dying. And there are 3 stocks that are poised to explode when this faltering $2.2 trillion industry finally bites the dust. Just like newspaper publishers, telephone utilities, stockbrokers, record companies, bookstores, travel agencies, and big box retailers did when the Internet swept away their business models. And when cable falters, you don't want to miss out on these three companies are positioned to benefit. Click here for their names. Hint: They'renot Netflix , Google , and Apple .
The article What Is John Malone's Net Worth? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Daniel Kline owns shares of Apple. He has never mentioned this many stocks in a story before. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, Google (A shares), Google (C shares), Liberty Global, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Google (A shares), Google (C shares), Lions Gate Entertainment, and Netflix and has the following options: short July 2015 $24 puts on Live Nation. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days . We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
Copyright © 1995 - 2015 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
