John Malone

Liberty/TCI; tracking stocks, tax-deferred compounding, leverage

Chairman of Liberty Media and its constellation of tracking-stock entities, Malone built Tele-Communications Inc. into the largest US cable operator before selling it to AT&T in 1999. His signature approach uses debt to defer capital-gains tax, share buybacks to concentrate value, and tracking stocks to unlock hidden asset worth. He is regarded as one of the most sophisticated financial engineers in media and telecommunications history.