MCI

"William McGowan was able to launch MCI to compete with AT&T. Ted Turner was able to create Turner Broadcasting. Hundreds of millions of dollars were raised through the sale of junk bonds and used to build new companies."

"Working from a Los Angeles office, Milken had created a $125 billion pool of capital that had helped tiny companies swallow giants and permitted obscure executives to gain control of world-famous busi- nesses. So effective was his operation that a mere statement that Milken believed he could raise a financial war chest in pursuit of a particular corporate quarry—a so-called "highly confident" letter—could cause panic at the company targeted for takeover. Secretive, feared by competitors, and closely monitored by securities regulators, Milken already played an enormous role in the communications industry. During his time at Drexel, he channeled some $26 billion into MCI, McCaw, Metromedia, Viacom, TCI, Time Warner, Turner, Cablevision Systems, News Corporation, and other cable, telecom, wireless, publish- ing, and entertainment companies."

"McCaw's goal, as always, was to preserve his independence, flexi- bility, and control. Although he had qualified for the MCI deal on the basis of Affiliated's balance sheet, McCaw ultimately decided to go with a different form of financing, perhaps to show a measure of indepen- dence from his Boston associates. He went with junk bonds, a relatively new form of corporate IOUs at high interest rates, recently popularized by an already legendary trader at Drexel Burnham Lambert named Michael Milken."