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Tele-Communications, Inc. or TCI was a cable television provider in the United States, for much of its history controlled by Bob Magness and John Malone. The company came into being in 1968, following the merger of Western Microwave, Inc. and Community Television, Inc. It was the largest cable operator in the United States at one time. After going public in 1970, the company grew rapidly, and became the top cable provider in the United States. After a failed merger attempt with Bell Atlantic in 1994,〔http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01EED8113BF937A15751C0A962958260, Retrieved on 2009/02/24.〕 it was purchased in 1999 by AT&T, whose cable television assets were later acquired by Charter Communications and then Comcast Corporation. ==History== After graduating from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Bob Magness was a cotton seed salesman and cattle rancher. In 1956, he met two men who were stranded and needed a ride. Learning that they wanted to build a community antenna system in Paducah, Texas, he decided to raise the money for a similar system in Memphis, Texas. He sold his cattle, took out a mortgage on his home and borrowed $2500 from his father. His wife did the office work while Bob put up the wires himself. Two years later Magness sold the system and was looking for a way to invest the sales proceeds. Another cable pioneer, Bill Daniels, told him about a community antenna system in Bozeman, Montana.〔http://www.cablecenter.org/education/library/oralHistoryDetails.cfm?id=238, Retrieved on 2009-03-12.〕 The Kearns-Tribune Corp., publisher of ''The Salt Lake Tribune'', which owned a cable system in Reno, Nevada, began relaying signals by common carrier microwave from Salt Lake City in 1956.〔O. N. Malmquist, The First 100 Years: A History of the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah State Historical Society, 1971 pp391〕 It became a partner with Magness in establishing a partnership for cable TV in Montana. George C. Hatch and Brian Glasmann were also partners in the companies known as Community Television Inc. and Western Microwave Inc. The Magness family moved to Bozeman.〔(Retrieved on 2009-03-12. )〕 Six systems were built, serving a total of 12,000 homes.〔 In 1962, Magness purchased Collier Electric Company, which had subscribers in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska, bringing the total number of subscribers to 18,000. Magness later moved to Scottsbluff, Nebraska.〔http://www.cablecenter.org/education/library/oralHistoryVideo.cfm?id=186&ln=Willis&fn=DAVE+WILLIS, Retrieved on 2009-03-12.〕 Over time, Magness acquired more systems but remained in Bozeman. By 1965, Daniels told him the companies needed to be located in a larger city.〔 Salt Lake City and Denver, Colorado were both considered.〔 In 1968, the companies moved to Denver and became Tele-Communications Inc. Tele-Communications Inc. went public in 1970.〔 At the time, it was the 10th largest cable company in the United States. By 1972, with 100,000 subscribers, Magness needed someone with more business knowledge to run the operation. He decided on John Malone, president of Jerrold Electronics, a division of General Instrument. Malone took on the bankers who wanted to call in their loans, and effectively saved the company from bankruptcy. Magness made Malone CEO but remained as chairman. By 1981, Malone had made TCI the largest cable company in the United States.〔〔(Retrieved on 2009-03-12. )〕〔(Retrieved on 2009-04-02. )〕 In 1982, Malone hired Peter Barton, who called himself the company's "Jimmy Olsen" because he just did whatever was needed, fresh from Harvard Business School. Barton went on to become president of TCI's Cable Value Network (later QVC) in 1986, and in 1991, president of TCI spinoff Liberty Media. Barton had a playful side and even kept toys in his Liberty Media office, and a gorilla costume to represent his status as "second banana" to Malone. Yet he had a reputation as "a shrewd and sometimes vicious negotiator."〔(Retrieved on 2009-04-02. )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tele-Communications Inc.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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