Time Inc.

"By one tally, we had spent $3 billion by 1987 for more than 150 cable companies, giving TCI reach into nearly 20 percent of U.S. homes. We had a sufficient lead—nearly twice as large as the number two player, Time Inc.’s ATC. A year later, we had no earnings but posted cash flow of $850 million—more than the cash flow of ABC, CBS, and NBC combined."

"We knew the price could be close to $2 billion, but how to afford it? “Clusters” had become a buzzword in the industry, adding adjoining systems in a certain geographic area like pieces in a puzzle. It was the first time we began to think about the potential to buy or swap systems with other cable operators who owned systems near the markets we were newly acquiring, a tactic Tryg Myhren, the CEO at Time Inc.’s American Television and Communications Corporation (ATC), had popularized. Instead of fighting over it, why not buy it together and divvy it up?"

"But Ted, who had joined the TCI board a year earlier in 1994, told me when I mentioned the idea of a merger, “I love you guys, but you’re too far right-wing for me. I think if CNN is going to be controlled by anybody or fit with anybody, it needs to fit with somebody who’s in the news business—and Time Inc. is probably the most logical choice.” In truth, I’m a libertarian, believing in minimal government intervention, free markets, and personal freedom—but I could not argue the nuances to Ted. Few can."