Steve Ross
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"As word got out I was looking, I got a call from Steve Ross at Warner. He was an impeccably dressed and roguishly charming media visionary charging against the Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) that dominated broadcasting with unprecedented news and entertainment choices. Ross had parleyed his early start in the funeral parlor business into what would one day become one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, Time Warner."
"So, I turned down Steve Ross’s offer of $150,000 a year and lots of perks, and Irving’s offer to run the largest cable operator in the U.S., to join Bob Magness, a down-on-his-luck cable operator whose company was running fast but deep in debt. Starting pay: $60,000 a year. I look back on that decision, and I smile at how naive I was at the time. You are unafraid of what you don’t know."
"From Steve Ross, the dealmaker who built Time Warner, I learned how posturing for no reason other than his worry about maintaining his supreme self-image could hold up a deal: he once kept me in my office in the deep of winter, after they had turned off the heat, until I agreed to something he hadn’t even yet offered—because it would only be offered officially if he could count on my saying yes to it. His ego couldn’t stand the possible rejection."
"General David Sarnoff, the chairman of RCA. Two of the general’s cousins, Steve Ross and Eddie Rosenthal, wanted our help with an acquisition. Through their company Kinney National, the Rosenthal family owned funeral parlors as well as garages, parking lots, and building service concerns. As part of their funeral business, they also operated a fleet of limousines and were now hoping to acquire Avis Rent-A-Car. The fit, the Rosenthals were convinced, would be a logical one for Kinney."
"At its roots, the investment banker’s craft, I was beginning to learn, was very much a challenge to fit disparate pieces together. Completing the puzzle required not simply diligence and strategy, but at times an iron will. To make the deal, you had on occasion to be willing to shove square pegs into round holes. And so it was when I teamed up once again with my old friend from the back room of the Riverside Funeral parlor, Steve Ross. This time, Steve had set his sights on a much bigger prize—he was determined to conquer Hollywood."