Mobile phones create opportunities.
Cellular telephone technology is the product of two-way radio transmission in 1970s. The cellular structure can handle more calls at the same time. 198 1 formulated the rules for the FCC (Federal Telecommunications Commission) to issue cellular phone technology licenses, and decided that each big city in the United States would be awarded two licenses: one for the winning bidder and the other for the on-the-job "wired" local telephone operator. There is not much objection to this decision-the system is very expensive to implement, and most telecom companies are not very interested because the technology has not been proved. In the first round of bidding, many metropolitan areas were awarded the sole bidder.
The lack of competitive market creates conditions for an entrepreneur to take over mobile phone technology and turn it into a profitable business. Mccall, a billionaire from Seattle, often goes out with Bill? Gates belongs to the same upper class, and they even went to the same school-Hubin Middle School. When they were children, McCaw and his family enjoyed delicious food from the housekeeper in their 28-room mansion.
His father, eloy? McCaw is the owner of a radio station and the operator of a cable TV system. He is one of the early speculators who took risks to make profits from broadcasting. 1953, eloy spent 450,000 dollars from Pennsylvania? Cross bought a large radio station in new york-Wins Radio. He already owns shares in eight other radio stations in several States, but the acquisition of WINS has made him enter the ranks of big companies. His way of doing business is simple: borrow money to buy and run a depressed small radio station, and once the acquisition is successful, quickly cut the cost to the limit, thus increasing free cash flow. This kind of operation only cares about paying the interest on the debt, but ignores the others. He will repeat this process over and over again. Because of his vision and talent, as well as a group of lawless music broadcasters, he built WINS into the largest radio station in America. 1969 was sold to Westinghouse electric company for100000 USD. It was his 18-year-old son Craig who got this check and deposited it in the San elias Bank.
A few months later, eloy died of a heart attack. Craig found that except for the $6,543,800,000 transferred by his father, other properties were in a mess. He's basically broke. Shares are scattered in 54 enterprises, with insurance liquidation of 2.5 million. It took Craig eight years to solve this problem. Fortunately, before eloy died, he had transformed a cable TV franchise into the trust property of his four sons. It has not been pursued by creditors in the long-term probate process.
After the children inherited, the company was named Shuangcheng Cable TV. With 10 employees, the company's total monthly income is about $8,000, which is barely flat. However, when the Seattle Times newspaper group made an all-out bid, the second son Craig persuaded several brothers to give up $654.38+$8,000 each and stick to the business. This is the beginning of the tradition of family unity, which has continued to this day.
Continue to buy like crazy.
After his father died, Craig 1 9 years old? McCaw is a sophomore at Stanford University. He plans to drop out of school and take over the day-to-day operation of Shuangcheng. His mother came forward to persuade him to finish college first, but he would rather be free in business. In the second year, he tried to take over the vending machine in Stanford to improve its quality and choice. When this did not succeed, he began to go out of the dormitory to run Twin CityCablevision；. By the time he graduated, he had determined his business strategy: growth through acquisition. He learned this rule from the economics course: expand or perish. Only by realizing economies of scale can he succeed in his career.
The cable TV industry has begun a new era, Craig? Mccall happens to be in a favorable position. Local entrepreneurs must invest in increasing equipment, and usually they are always short of cash. On the contrary, McCaw has strong financial resources. His skill is to imitate his father: buy a system, reduce its operating cost, increase marketing to attract more customers, and then use the generated cash flow and net asset value to finance the next transaction.
He went on a shopping spree. McCaw's cable TV system is run by drunkards in fairbanks bars, dentists, beauty salon owners, ambulance drivers and deep-sea divers in Oregon. During the negotiation, he paid $700,000 to the man nicknamed "Fat Man" who watched pornographic movies in his office. He paid 3 million in cash to an Oregon man who lived in a trailer park deep in the jungle. Mccall works fast: he flies in, offers a higher price than the operator, finalizes the number with a few clicks, and then completes the transaction overnight.
Mccall and his team (now including his two younger brothers) know how to squeeze the last penny out of operating costs and then increase the figures. In order to "make our signal look better", he carefully serves customers and improves customer service. But they seldom try to improve the technical function.
However, he soon got tired of the cable TV business. By 198 1, the income of this group is about 5 million dollars-although it is not a big income-McCaw began to feel oppressed. This big market has been dominated by John of TCI? Malone and a few rich national players occupied it. Mccall 198 1 was 30 years old and had 30,000 subscribers in Washington and Alaska. He sold 45% of the company's ownership to United Publishing Company for $654.38+02 million.
1980, McCaw and Wayne, vice chairman of joint publishing company? Perry began to study a new set of telephone channels, called "cellular". (It was Perry, a lawyer in the communication industry, who first put forward the idea of mobile phones in the late 1970s, which attracted McCaw's attention. )
The business opportunity of this technology is obvious: it is very promising to provide cheap wireless telephone service nationwide. From 1983 to 1987, Maccowen spent about $3.5 million to buy six of the 30 largest MSAs in China, including Seattle. Price depends on population; The average price per "head" is $4.50. In order to evaluate the value of the license, McCaw used AT & amp； T (AT&T Company) predicted the potential of mobile phone in 198 1, and the result was ridiculously low. At&T Company. T estimates that by the year 2000, the potential of mobile phones in the United States will only exceed/kloc-0.0 million; In fact, by 1993, the number of users has exceeded100000.
Capital Games
Next, they set up a cellular network, and McCaw needs a lot of money to buy and install equipment to provide services. In the following three years, he relied on the sponsorship of several wealthy partners-they paid about $654.38 billion, and a banking consortium bought Michael? Milken's "junk stock", with a financing of $654.38+0.3 billion, began to buy. Mccall buys mobile phone licenses from everyone he can find. Managers in mccall use the technology honed in the cable TV era of the company to travel back and forth across the country. Two of the famous beneficiaries are former US President Bill? Clinton and his wife Chirac? Clinton. In the mid-1980s, McCaw spent $48,000 to buy out their $5,000 investment in the Arkansas license.
By 1986, McCormack sold the paging branch and got $75 million, while retaining MCI's mobile phone license. After a stormy action, McCormack, who was never tired, was finally exhausted. 1987, he spent his holiday in the Caribbean and traveled by boat. When he came back, he had decided the next action plan. He sold all his cable TV shares to Jack for $775 million. Kent. Cook, then go public with McCaw Mobile Phone Company.
In its initial public offering, the company raised $309 million, plus $600 million in "junk stock" debt. McCaw obtained 127 additional mobile phone concessions, covering 47 million people. By the end of 1980s, other people also realized this situation, so the value rose. 1989, the company's debt has exceeded 10 billion dollars, and the annual loss exceeds 300 million dollars, but this has not stopped him. He bought it even though the price started to go up wildly. People who don't like gambling may become cautious, but McCaw has become more determined. His response was to sell a 22% stake in McCoy Mobile Phone Company to BT, which has just issued listed shares and is flush with cash. The resulting $654.38+0.5 billion gave him the cash he needed to satisfy his passion. John from TCI? With Malone's help, he is ready to sprint.
The sprint relied on an amazing bid for Lin Broadcasting Company. When the dust settled on 1989, the grand prize finally came to him. Mccall paid $3.4 billion and won 50 of the 25 million "heads". Although Amazon's development path is rugged, alberg has a spring breeze all the way!
Alberg is worth 2 pounds. Ignoring the advice, they all made a fortune.
The most outstanding representative is alberg, who is over 60 years old, obtained a law degree from Columbia University and worked as a securities lawyer for 20 years. 1990 joined Maccowen as the executive vice president. He once brought the company to the brink of danger ―― investing a dime a dozen on the website made the company heavily in debt! He said: "We have been on the verge of collapse several times. In our eyes, McCaw is indeed a great adventurer, but he often teaches us to be cautious. " Until 1993, McCaw Company was unable to support itself, so alberg and Perry agreed AT & amp； T bought the company for11500 million dollars (including debt of 5 billion). Alberg continued to run McCawlin's department, but he gave up on 1995 and started a private equity fund named Madron Investment Group in partnership with three other people who did not belong to McCawlin's gang. A few of them scattered $6,543,800,000 in 50 newly established companies, and earned $74,000,000 in just four years, not including unsold and undisclosed assets. The money they earn mainly comes from Amazon and two other businesses: Visio, a design company engaged in graphic software, which was acquired by Microsoft for $654.38+0.5 billion shares; Active voice- engaged in the development of voice mail, acquired by Cisco for $296 million in stock. 1999, Madron Investment Group began to raise 1 100 million dollars of venture funds, and later raised 250 million dollars, 25 times the initial amount raised. Of course, they also face difficulties: the return on investment of Madrona's new fund on the Internet last year was only 2.6%. For impatient investors, the Internet is not a good place.
Alberg is also looking for other opportunities and hopes to unite McCaw's colleagues around him. They often help each other. For example, the Ignition Fund was co-founded by Hooper and others with the help of Ahlberg. Later, Ahlberg also allocated funds to support the development of the fund. Ignition's door-opening business-ETRIEVE wireless e-mail service is jointly invested by Madrona and Ignition.
Alberg's Madrona Investment Group has operations all over the world. Recently, he invested 75 million dollars in Impinj, which is engaged in the development of low-energy chips for wireless devices; Nimble Technology is engaged in the development of data integration software, which is alberg's latest bet. (Blog www. Omit the abstract)