Stanton

"Stanton had a brilliant idea, suggested by a case he had studied at the Harvard Business School, in which British Petroleum had merged with Sohio, an American oil company. The deal required that a value be set on the oil rights BP owned in Alaska's North Slope, yet neither party knew how much the oil there was worth. So the two companies agreed to a minimum and a maximum value. Stanton proposed a similar strat- egy. He suggested offering Scripps 40 percent ownership of the cellular division, a generous offer based on McCaw's current value. But if McCaw's company grew, Scripps's ownership would shrink in stages to 15 percent. In either scenario, Scripps would be guaranteed a handsome return on its investment."

"the high stakes, but he stayed home. "I wasn't that worried," McCaw now says. "There's so much ebb and flow of things." He characterizes the meeting as an example of "the technical things" that didn't require his presence. He figured Stanton could try to win some concessions for the McCaw forces, but if he lost, they could fight the battle on a differ- ent front."

"Stanton had worked hard, even by his legendary standards. While many executives had to consult with the home office on deals, Stanton, typical for a Craig McCaw manager, operated with almost total auton- omy. McCaw had no desire to be there. "Why would I want to do that? To me, those are the kinds of places where you make too many mistakes," he says. "You're too close to it. I never want to do stuff like that. I never want to lose." In other words, McCaw feared wanting a deal so much that he would pay too high a price—the risk of being emotionally involved."