In the United States they call him the ‘Cable Cowboy’ and for many years he was reputed to be America’s largest private landowner.
But despite owning 2.2 million acres there, John Malone has made Ireland his home-from-home over the past decade.
The 84-year-old, who this week announced he was relinquishing his full-time board role at Formula One owner Liberty Media and at Liberty Global, the group behind Virgin Media’s Irish operation, is a frequent visitor to Humewood Castle in Co Wicklow.
In an interview with The Irish Times in 2018, Malone estimated that he has spent about €300 million in the past decade on a portfolio of personal assets in Ireland.
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He bought Humewood in 2012 for a reported €7.2 million.
“I actually do believe that there may be a genetic element in wanting to own the land you’re on,” he once said.
[ ‘I love the place’: US billionaire John Malone on his €300m Irish portfolioOpens in new window ]
He followed up the Humewood purchase with that of the Castlemartin estate in 2014.
The sprawling 750-acre property in Co Kildare had belonged to the late Irish tycoon Tony O’Reilly. Sold on the instructions of AIB – to whom O’Reilly owed millions of euro – it went for €28 million.
Malone makes regular visits to Humewood for stays during the summer months. His Irish assets extend much further than residential accommodation.
As chairman of Liberty Global he pursued major business purchases here.
The first was the cable provider UPC – later to become part of Virgin Media Ireland. Along the way, were two TV stations – first TV3 in 2015 and then UTV Ireland in late 2016. The new TV entity was branded as Virgin Media Television.
Malone controls both Formula One and Live Nation – the owner of global ticketing giant Ticketmaster. Speculation has focused on a potential disposal of shares in both businesses over the next two years
His purchase and planned refurbishment of Humewood brought him into contact with John Lally and former stockbroker Paul Higgins. The two men played a role in its restoration and the trio went on to forge the MHL hotel partnership.
The group currently manages more than 2,300 beds around the country and lists among its portfolio the five-star Intercontinental in Ballsbridge, the College Green Hotel in Dublin city centre, the Powerscourt Hotel Resort and Spa in Enniskerry, Wicklow, and The Strand in Limerick.
What does Malone’s taking of a back seat in Liberty mean for the businesses he founded and shepherded for so many decades?
Malone’s transition to semi-retirement was “well telegraphed”, according to American portfolio manager at Gamco Chris Marangi, and comes with a “rationalisation of assets” that has been going on for more than 20 years.
“Liberty Global is already down the path of getting bigger or getting out of its primary markets,” he says – pointing to the ongoing simplification of structures belonging to Malone’s Liberty Live and Formula One businesses.
Malone controls both Formula One and Live Nation – the owner of global ticketing giant Ticketmaster. Speculation has focused on a potential disposal of shares in both businesses over the next two years.
“The coming unwind of the Liberty Live [and] Formula One tracking stock structure simplifies the path to monetising each of those assets,” Marangi said in reference to this.
But it was with cable TV that Malone made his name in the 1980s and 1990s – building out the cable network that first brought paid TV into the homes of millions of Americans – before going on to deliver the streaming services of the 21st century.
He helped bring together WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2022 – in recognition of the fact that streaming services are usurping traditional broadcasters – but was stymied in efforts to merge Warner with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox due to perceived difficulties in having CNN and Fox News under the same umbrella.
Will the expected “simplification” of Liberty’s assets be applied in Ireland?
Speculation has swirled around Virgin Media Television for years. Part of the Virgin Media Ireland group that encompasses its broadband, TV and mobile phone businesses, the TV station in Ballymount, Dublin, is under pressure as advertising revenue has migrated to digital platforms.
Earlier this month, Malone dumped about half his stock in British broadcaster ITV.
Paul Farrell was vice-president of commercial at Virgin Media Ireland when Malone and the rest of his board came to Ireland in 2018. He says the collection of friends, acquaintances and business partners Malone had surrounded himself with were a “fascinating bunch” and Malone was “sharp and clued-in”.
Farrell and the Virgin Media team presented Malone with the plan to rebrand TV3 as Virgin Media Television and to seek “synergies” between it and the broadband business.
“The feedback we got later was something along the lines that he was surprised it had taken us so long to try it,” Farrell says. “For regulatory reasons in the United States he had been unable to do the same with his businesses there. He was keen to see if there was value in the synergies between the TV and broadband businesses.”
Farrell would later transfer to the TV business where he was managing director until 2023.
He says Malone kept a close eye on the project, which he believes delivered benefits for both sides of the business.
“[The rebrand] enabled us to do a lot of other things – particularly on the sports side – you could leverage and subsidise from the broadband business.”
Farrell notes that while Liberty Global has a reputation for “buying and then selling” assets – its European portfolio, which includes similar investments in the Netherlands and Belgium, has remained quite stable for a number of years.
Having moved on from the industry two years ago, Farrell is unable to say with certainty what approach Liberty might now take with their broadband and TV assets – but “there is no sense” that the model doesn’t still work.
In the room that day in 2018 was Liberty Global chief executive, and Malone’s right-hand man, Mike Fries – who will assume the role of chairman in 2026.
Another former executive who worked under Malone suggests his stepping back from the Liberty boards means he is likely to spend more time at his properties in Ireland – from where he will still provide “strategic” advice to Liberty in his role as chairman emeritus.
Malone revealed in his recent autobiography that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg had asked if he could buy the Castlemartin estate.
“I told him no, sorry Mark,” Malone told the Financial Times.
“He said: ‘I hear it’s the prettiest place in Ireland.’ And I said: ‘Maybe in the world, but it ain’t for sale’.”
