Cable TV: New investor opens them pearly Gates

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Two major events occurred this year that restored faith in the cable industry. One was the collapse of a potentially huge competitor that was backed by Rupert Murdoch. The other was Bill Gates’ investment of $1 billion in a top cable operator, rekindling Wall Street’s interest in cable in the process. These two disparate events have made Murdoch, the ultraconservative head of News Corp., and Gates, the much-feared father of Microsoft, unlikely poster boys for the cable industry.
It was Murdoch’s inability to pull together American Sky Broadcasting, the much-vaunted satellite venture nicknamed Deathstar, that caused cable executives to breathe a collective sigh of relief last April.



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