John Carl Malone (born March 7, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman, landowner, and philanthropist.
He was chief executive officer (CEO) of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), a cable and media giant, for twenty-four years from 1973 to 1996.
Malone is ranked as the second-largest private landowner in the United States, possessing 2.2 million acres (890,000 hectares), which is more than twice the size of Rhode Island.
In 1963, he graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and economics,[13] where he was a Phi Beta Kappa and National Merit scholar.
[14] In 1963, Malone began his business career at Bell Telephone Laboratories of AT&T, working in economic planning and research and development.
In 2005, Malone held 32 percent of the shares in the media company News Corporation, and although only about half were voting shares, Rupert Murdoch reportedly had concerns that he might lose control of his company to Malone, and tried to oust him from the firm with a "poison pill" strategy.
As of 1 February 2011[update], he surpassed Ted Turner as the largest individual private landowner in the US, owning 2,200,000 acres (8,900 km2) of land, much of which is in Maine, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.
[8] In 2011, Malone gave the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering in Baltimore its largest gift ever of $30 million for a new building on Homewood Campus.
In 2014, Malone and his wife donated $42.5 million to Colorado State University to help create their Institute for Biologic Translational Therapies, which aims to develop stem cell and other treatments for animals and people.
[34][35] Malone reportedly shuns the limelight and glamorous lifestyle, taking his family vacations alongside long-time friend Gary Biskup in a recreational vehicle.