Fireside Chat with Byron Allen & Robert Smith | 2019 Greenwich Economic Forum

robert is a partner at Lido advisors a six billion dollar wealth advisory firm headquartered in los angeles california where he oversees the firm sports and entertainment division so robert without further ado i'll let you in and introduce today's keynote speaker how's everybody good good bellies are in full settled so today I have the distinct pleasure in interviewing and doing a fireside chat but as you can see there's no fire but we'll work it out it's nice and long I met this gentleman about five years ago through a good friend of mine Bill Bellamy who's a comedian and actor and was just astonished to find out that there was someone who looked like me came from humble beginnings and owned his company a hundred percent he's a mogul in the entertainment business he's a maverick he's an innovator and we've got a little clip here to show you just so you can be familiar with who he is in 2018 entertainment studios purchased The Weather Channel together our combined portfolio resembles a 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three sides to a stone nearest and the right side is closed comedy court whether we offer a vibrant spectrum of programming spanning cable and syndicated television and mobile and TV apps featuring hyper localized daily news and headlines you can't find in the mainstream media and enough passion lead content to feed the soul and bring people together we are one big weather crazy just as seeking laugh to you cry fun love and family [Music] ladies and gentlemen Byron Allen oh is it come on come on come on this is not a tax and come on now no one died do this there we go all right you guys sitting there go oh my goodness hello buddy incredible how are you sorry you're gonna sit right there haven't seen all right nice actually no what you switch is all right Greenwich Connecticut look at you this is great all righty well thank you for having me I really appreciate it you know I live in LA yes yes and I am not used to this weather this is the kind of weather where you just like I don't you say what is going on is this legal and so I am happy to be here as happy to spend some time with you yes well I think it's really important that we begin to be honest with your genesis in terms of how you grew up and how you got exposed to the life of one to be entrepreneur and where you derive your motivations from Wow well I see we can you want the Hollywood answer the real answers I'm all about the real you know what the real yes well then I'm gonna bring real today because you asked for it that's right uh you know look I was I'm a very blessed man I'm extremely blessed I my mother got pregnant with me when she was 16 years old and she had me seventeen days after her 17th birthday and so you know you wouldn't bet on that baby you know a black teenage mother and a little black baby born April 22nd 1961 I'm born without civil rights you wouldn't bet on that baby but you know America is a great country you know things change for us B you know Martin Luther King was assassinated in April of 68 and I was seven years old I was the I was in the street playing baseball with my buddies and all of a sudden I heard my mother and my grandmother scream like I've never heard before they killed Martin they killed my Marty they killed Marty and before I could turn my head back from looking at my mother and my grandmother screaming I turned my head back boom and I'm looking down the street and literally I was looking down the barrel of a tank and the tank was coming towards me in this and the troops were coming towards me bayonets rifles dogs get back in the house is a Detroit Michigan Detroit Michigan riots broke out military shut us down things were a little chaotic so my mother and I my mom said let's go to LA and let's visit some family let's visit some friends and it was supposed to be a two-week vacation and we ended up staying and number friends let us sleep on their sofas their floors a couple of extra bedrooms not too many did that for a while and my mom ended up getting into UCLA and she ended up getting her master's degree and cinema TV production and because she was at UCLA she was able to get an interview with NBC to do a job interview and she they didn't have a job for and she said can I be an intern and they said no we don't have an intern program and my mom asked a question that changed our lives she said will you start one with me and they said yes that was you know that was you know those were thin times I like to say ten times right my mom was young so they talked to her about people talk to her about not being able to afford me all right not being able to keep me and that's a very real thing here in America people were losing their children because they can't afford them and you hear that kind of conversation it cuts to your core and you know I felt like I had lost my my dad in the divorce because he was back in Detroit and my cousins and I wasn't about to lose my mother and as a kid I remember hearing that was ten years old so I said money won't be the reason why I don't keep my momma so we're gonna learn about money and we're gonna learn how to make money right now and I'm not gonna be a burden to my momma so I started hustling and I remember I went to Rao supermarket and I said can I be a bag boy and I put some I get a job here and put groceries in the bag and they said how are you I said I'm 10 years old you can't work here you know you're not old enough to work here and I said how old is that guy right there bagging the groceries he like you know he's 16 years old I said well look he's putting the eggs on the bottom of the bag and I know not to do that now I'm 10 I won't put eggs at the bottom my grandmother screamed at me all the way home if I put eggs at the bottom of the bag they said no you can't work here and I remember walking out of the market supermarket and I saw this lady walking towards me with a basket bless you and start walking towards me with a grocery basket and then I saw her put it in a machine and she got a stamp but I said man what is that and she said well they don't want these grocery baskets all over the parking lot because they're denting the cars and so they they give you a stamp and if you get a hundred stamps you can get a dollars worth of food so I started working at that parking lot Wow and getting stamps and bringing home bringing home food to my mother because I wanted her to know don't worry about me I'm never gonna be a burden so I just started hustling right then and there and I used to go out with her to MDC and that was an unbelievable blessing because I was able to wait for my mom to get off work as she gave tours and I would sit there in the corner and I just sit there in the corner and I watched Johnny Carson rehearse and do the Tonight Show and I watched Redd Foxx do Sanford and Son Flip Wilson do the Flip Wilson show and I watch Bob Hope tape his specials and George Burns I watched an unknown sportscaster do the local sports on KMBC Bryant Gumbel before the Today Show and I watched an unknown weatherman do the weather in LA Pat Sajak and I thought what a wonderful way to go through life making people laugh making television before that I wanted to go to work with my dad and my granddad in Detroit my dad worked at Ford Motor Company for 30 plus years and my granddaddy worked at Great Lakes field for 30 plus years these guys you know put on a uniform every day and I just want and they just tried to figure out how to put 36 hours on a 24 hour a day and I just wanted to go to work with them but then I found a different kind of factory a Content factory a comedy factory and I thought this is what I'm gonna do with my life I'm gonna make people laugh I'm gonna produce content produce television and I'm gonna do it for the world and that's when I have that opit it changed my life and I was fortunate there was a comedian on the Gladys Knight with pip summer show Gabe Kaplan he did stand-up told me to go to the comedy store I went to the comedy store and I performed I was 14 years old and I did my first routine Mitzi shore god bless her soul she put me on stage there was literally four people in the audience and 200 empty chairs and I said well I guess I got to figure out how to make empty chairs laughs and I did the routine and then this guy came up to me and he said who wrote those jokes I said I wrote those jokes he says those jokes were funny I said well that was the intent he goes I'm sorry you only have four people in two hundred chairs I go yeah you know those chairs they're a little fickle and he goes listen I know somebody like might like one they may want to write some jokes with you can I get your phone number it goes sure I said what's your name he said Wayne crying I said all right Wayne it said give me call anytime so I get a call like a week later and this guy calls me because hey can I speak to Byron I go this is Byron he goes my man Wayne Klein says you're funny and if my man Wayne Klein says you're funny then you must be funny I said well tell Wayne I said hello I go who's this he goes this is Jimmy JJ dynomite Walker I say hey Jimmy I love good times he goes do you want to come right with me and my boys I said sure let me ask my mom and he goes oh man he's got to ask his mom and then I heard the smart aleck in the background say to Jimmy tell his mom not to worry we'll have some cookies and milk for him I'm like who is that knucklehead so I was embarrassed and my mom let me go my mom took me and I walk into Jimmy's apartment and sitting in his apartment is David Letterman who had just driven out from Indianapolis in a red pickup truck and he drove out because he didn't think he was gonna make it and he wanted to be able to get back in his pickup truck and go back to Indianapolis Jay Leno was sitting there and he was sleeping in his car and Martine Adler who went on to write and produce Laverne and Shirley and Happy Days and Wayne Cline and Jeff Duncan and Jeff Stein went on to do amazing sitcoms and I walked in they said have a seat so I had a seat it was just like this we're in Jimmy's apartment I had a big afro I look good I had I had plaid pants and you know Letterman was sitting there with shorts and he had some Indianapolis you know University shirt on or whatever it was and i sat there and i started writing jokes with these guys and they taught me how to write material and really do it in a way that was just on point and I just was able to do it with the best Leno Letterman Walker Martine Adler little and and and and and Letterman were giving $200 a week that's what Jimmy paid them 200 bucks a week and he paid me $25 a joke so bless you I sold my first joke to him and I was able to quit my paper route and for 25 bucks and I was getting half a penny of paper to throw the herald-examiner I had to throw two newspapers to make a penny and so I quit my paper route and I still have that cheque that he wrote me hanging in my office that 25 dollar check because that check allowed me to quit the only job I've ever had Wow because everything from that moment on has been absolutely what I love to do that's it never worked another day in my life so that was really it I was been really fortunate I ended up doing The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson I ended up being the youngest comedian to do it with Johnny I was 18 years old and I did it a couple of weeks before I graduated from high school I thought it was going to help me get a date to the prom and it didn't it comes back oh it always does right and so I end up doing snide show and I ended up getting a number of offers and I'm very numerical mathematical and so my agents put in front of me these offers and at that time in 79 and it went really well with Johnny Carson I was very comfortable there because I had grown up in the studio literally hours and weeks and days waiting for my mom to get off work and I used to talk to Johnny Carson when he would pull up he would pull up at 2 o'clock like clockwork in his parking lot and I'd always position myself to be near his parking space when he pulled up act like I was doing my homework and he looked hello mr. Carson and he knew me by first name hello Byron hey great show last night sir thank you that was a funny monologue sir you got it thank you sir I got the talking that was mine that's my man oh I love Johnny alright so I said look let's do this show and they said why this show I said there's only they're only three networks ABC NBC CBS 66 hours of primetime television this is the only hour out of the 66 hours that's different from the others and they said okay it's kind of risky I go no no this shows gonna work because it's different from the other 65 hours and they said okay well let him know you're gonna you're gonna do this show and it was real people and real people gave birth to reality shows in America and was on NBC from 79 to 84 I said this is the perfect show this allows me to do this show beyond television and go to USC film school at the same time so that was it so I've been really fortunate really blessed and what changed it education education my mom getting into UCLA that changed the trajectory of our of our lives real people was great it was a great experience took me all over America because I really got to see America not just LA and New York and then you fly over LA you fly over America I'm in coach shocked in Ohio Waterloo you know I oh I'm in Bangor Maine like sometimes I have three four hundred people and no stoplights and you go and you are in the community you're hanging out you're sitting on the porch drinking lemonade you really get to know American you get to know the way America thinks forget la forget New York it's what's in between that's what's running things so that was a great experience and then I had a contract dispute with real people and and I didn't like that feeling and for a minute there they fired me and it was the worst thing that ever happened and the best thing that ever happened and I said okay but I ended up getting the job back and I said okay let me learn this business because at that moment I knew when I was young enough where it was the best thing to happen I was 19 I said I'm gonna learn business show not show business so you went away from being a creative yeah right now I really understanding the principles of business that's it govern it a lot of people want to be in show business exactly and that's not good like that's like whatever go be in show business you want to be in business show you want to know the business side innately once you know the business side I can literally I mean I have 65 shows on the air okay because I know the business side right we have ten networks because we studied the business and we know it innately I know it like breathing so I really just studied the business I'm a I went to my first television convention in January of 80 I was 19 years old and I was at the New York Hilton and I said and this is a big TV convention and I've gone every year since then so I've gone 38 consecutive years and I've just made it a fact I just made it a simple mission to know everybody in the business and for everybody in the business to know me so all the people who own and operate TV stations and ad agencies and I said who's the best in the business said Alma Seany and I said what floor is he on it was at the New York Hilton my offices are across the street now in the old ABC offices at 1330 Avenue of the Americas so it does come full circle so they said he's like on the 45th floor and I went up to the 45th floor and I walked in and he was standing there and he was bigger than life al masini full of confidence and he's selling this television show and he says this is the greatest TV show ever I've got the biggest movie star in the world on my pilot Burt Reynolds on the set of Smokey and the Bandit and he says this show is gonna be the biggest show ever and they said what's the name of the show al he said Entertainment Tonight Wow so I watched him sell it in January and put it on the air in September and he went on and went on to do solid Gold Star Search lifestyles of rich and famous the first miniseries syndicated miniseries a woman called Golda about Golda Meir just amazing and I walked up and I introduced myself and I said I understand I said you're mr. al Messina he goes yes I said I understand you're the best in the business he said yes I said my name is Byron Allen and I'm here to be the best in the business so I'm here to learn from you so where we don't have dinner tonight laughs he's like I like you kid like and he became like a second father to me were you you were intentional oh yeah I was intentional you know he was just a great guy and got married four times really love the ladies and and he never had kids and I ended up becoming like the son he never had and he was so gracious with me and so loving and sharing with me and he just he took to me and I was fortunate that regard and he just said you are an unbelievable salesman and you know and he always said he's he'd said things to me I'll never forget it was it was interesting it was emotional for me because he was the first person inducted into the broadcasting and hey cable Hall of Fame 29 years ago Wow and they just inducted me last week and I said and I appreciate this you know you know not because she wouldn't ducted me and I appreciate that more than anything but I would I appreciate is that God gave me such a phenomenal human being in Alma Seanie is that he told me 29 years ago I would be here and every American needs that that's right every child in America needs that person who loves them nurtures them appreciates them and invest in them and and that was it I was very fortunate and and that you know he came into my life and helped teach me the business and I started my company from my dining room table because he told me I should and I started my company from my dining room table and I started by calling every television station in the country to sell my first television show and I had a TV show where I was interviewing people a bunch of movie stars and Tribune had said to me if you get 75% of the country we will advance you 400 grand and we will sell your advertising time I said no problem all you want me to do is get enough TV stations to carry my TV show to represent 75% of the country I could do it so I sat in my dining room table I called all 1300 TV stations asked him to carry my once a week show that had 14 minutes of commercial time I would keep seven minutes you local television station you keep seven minutes you sell your seven minutes to local supermarkets and car dealers I'll sell my seven minutes to Johnson & Johnson and Pepsi and General Motors and McDonald's and that's how I will pay for the show and literally I got about 50 notes from every television station I got about 50,000 knows to squeeze out a hundred and fifty yeses hardest thing I've ever done in my life sit at a dining room table from sunup to sundown for over a year just about a year and and clear that show and unfortunately when I got that done Tribune said we changed our minds we're not going to give you that four hundred thousand dollar advance and we're not going to sell your advertising time and I went holy moly I'm not gonna call my mama and say say that so so and and it was a very pivotal moment for me because I remember I remember two weeks earlier two weeks earlier I was speaking to a television station whp I still remember whp the CBS affiliate in wilkes-barre I think it is and I said you know my mom was doing my paper work and I said to my mom you know mom I noticed that the that she didn't put the the clearance of the CBS affiliate in Harrisburg you didn't put in on the clearance list and I only go after the people where we have holes and I noticed that you didn't plug that in she says I don't have the paperwork the paperwork I don't I don't have it I'm like mom you can't misplace our paperwork these are hard deals to get so I called the guy back and I said hey Bob it seems that my executive assistant has misplaced on my paperwork that we've agreed on because no I didn't send it back I go what you didn't send it back he goes nope nope nope he says some guys were in here from paramount studios and they came in to see me and they told me you were calling me from your dining room table and that you were in your underwear and that that show that I bought from you that show was not going to show up and you weren't going to deliver that show and if you did deliver that show would be on the air for maybe two or three weeks and then go away so I gave the boys from paramount your time period I said really Wow I said okay I said listen I'm Bob him yes I said let me just say this yes the boys from paramount are right I am calling you from my dining room table and I am in my underwear because I don't have an office Bob but they're wrong about one thing I'm gonna put the show there and I'm never gonna cancel it and I'm never gonna put them in a position where they can walk into a TV station anywhere in America and say that Byron Allen show won't be there tell the boys from Paramount they got this one they'll never get another one and because of them I will never cancel that show and that show will be on until the end of time my grandkids will end up hosting that show so just let the boys from paramount paramount know they got that never again he says I'll let them know so fast-forward Tribune said we're not sending the money and I thought about that conversation about the boys from paramount and I said for me to have credibility with these television stations they have to depend them on my word they have to know that my word is better than gold masini and my mother taught me that never doubt my word ever so I said I'm going forward I didn't have two nickels to rub together I didn't even know how to sell advertising time so the pay for the tape the pay for the satellite the paid for the cameraman there were days I didn't eat there were days they turned off my pay phone they turned off my for this is before pay phones they turned off my phone I had to call people from a payphone it was tough I had to I used to my home went in and out of foreclosure maybe 14 times I don't even know over about a four year period my credit was so bad people wouldn't take my cash that's true and I didn't know it was bad tell her what to go get a car they were like the guy laughed and and he actually said I'm not sure I can even take your cash so I you know it was just tough it was just really tough and I had a great lady at the bank I think she worked the Bank of America and she was great she was like hey honey your desk she's really sweet she said hey honey your file keeps coming on my desk what's going on and you know my mama told me he just always be honest tell it all tell it early be truthful I said well ma'am I'm trying to fund a television show I'm trying to pay the cameraman I'm trying to pay satellite she goes oh I get it she goes I know you're telling the truth because I've never heard that before so listen up she said whatever you do don't let it go past day 89 cuz it will stay with me but on day 90 it goes to Agnes who sits next to me and you don't want to talk to Agnes agnus is not very nice I said okay and I put it on my calendar every 89 days and I played the float that's how I paid for my tape and that's how I paid for satellite and finally I went to all the heads of the movie studios and I said it's not about me it's about you here's my value add I'm interviewing all your movie stars Tom Hanks everybody you name it Tom Cruise whoever Julia Roberts Denzel Washington your movie stars for an hour I'm having your movie stars on I'm selling your movies and I need you guys you spend 200 to 600 million a year each and you don't spend money with me please spend some of your ad dollars with me so I can be there to support you I'm a one-hour commercial gold in the movies and they said okay and I signed up all the movie studios and then after I signed up all the movie studios I had that epiphany it's about not about me it's about you how I'm here to make your business better that was the that's it value first I'm here to be of service to you once I solidified the movie industry I went and did the same thing with soft drinks once all the soft drink companies then I wouldn't saw the pharmaceutical companies and then all of the packaged goods companies and all of the automotive companies and now I looked up and I was like wow I'm in business with every television station in the country and then I'm in business with most major advertisers and then I just kept smiling and down and down and smiling smiling and dialing and next thing I know I had over 40 television shows and the largest privately held television library in the world and and I just said okay what's next well it seems like you took not even knowing certain principles that we deal with in the venture and private equity in high structured finance world right and technically applied that to being able to roll up certain assets and those relationships within television that's exactly right and then and I knew I knew that I can't just sit here I my thing is always about growth it's in my DNA you know it's like when you think about the automotive industry the car isn't ever good enough they make a better one every year that's just that heart wiring we think we have as human beings and I remember I was in New York and I was reading in the New York Times that they Verizon was going to spend twenty three billion dollars to lay fiber to the home and bring Tullett cable Toliver to the home and they were gonna offer 150 HD channels so I went to Verizon and I said hey I understand you guys went off for 150 HD channels they said yeah that's right I said well I'm here to offer you ten of them and they said how many do you have now how many 24-hour cable networks do you have now that you want to offer ten of them I said zero I said but before you call security I said let me tell you what my thinking is I'm originally from Detroit I want to bring Henry Ford efficiency to television when I did my first television show real people I'd never seen such waste I saw guys worked for two hours trying to get paid for twelve that's not my DNA so when I sent a camera crew to Pebble Beach to shoot the car show concours d'elegance I don't want them to just shoot car content for a 24 hour car Network cars dot TV shoot content for a recipe TV with all of the chef's up there at the resort's shoot the resorts for our Travel Channel my destination dot TV shoot all of the pet community up shoot what's going on in the pet community for pets TV and blah blah blah they say you know we've heard a lot of ideas but that's one of the best we've ever heard we're not gonna give you ten networks we're gonna give you six networks so we made history and we launched six 24-hour HD networks then I went back a year later and said I'm the largest producer of court shows I have six court shows on the air I like to do a 24-hour Court Channel then they gave me a seventh watch and yeah then a guy came to me who satellites all my networks he came to me and he said can I have dinner with you I said sure we go to dinner and his company is very successful they satellite our networks he cuz you may not know this but before I ran this company encompassed satellite networks I used to be the chief operating officer of The Weather Channel and he says you live in LA and it's always 80 degrees and sunny you don't think about the weather he goes but the weather is a great business and it's owned by a private to private equity firms Bain and Blackstone and they own it with Comcast and they're not getting along he says it's like the best way I can describe it it's a beautiful home in a beautiful neighborhood and a bad marriage and you can get a good deal and he goes he goes he goes you're really smart you're very efficient no one thinks the way you think and the way you operate businesses you're the perfect person to own the Weather Channel he goes and I know you're not thinking about it you should buy it and I started telling me about the revenue and the EBIT ah he's like yeah these guys are pulling you know like a couple of hundred million a year out and dividends blah blah but I say you have my attention and so and I said so who owns he goes you know bein in a black zone and I said oh okay he goes why did you say like that oh okay I said I know those guys and he's like oh you know them I go yes I was at a coffee shop and I'm sitting at the coffee shop and this guy sitting next to me and I ain't sure I'm just friendly hey how you doing what's your name my name is Byron what what you die and this guy says yeah I just moved here and this isn't in the LA at the Beverly Hills Hotel downstairs because I just moved here from New York I go watch you move here from New York because I bought a bank I said you bought a bank I go what's the name of the bank he goes IndyMac I'd go any bank I said I saw people on the news last night standing in line trying to get their money out of that Bank he goes yeah that's my bank we're talking he's like I want to be your banker I'm going in that bag what's wrong with you and he goes yeah he goes no he goes I'm gonna turn the bank around he goes I got those I got investors I got Soros I got Michael Dell I got Polson and we raised billions of dollars I got a backstop from the government ten billion dollars I'm gonna return the bank around and he goes you know while we have breakfast in a turn I said what's your name he goes Steve venusian okay I said all right he goes can we have breakfast I go yeah this have breakfast here we go to breakfast and we're talking thing we like yeah he goes I'm gonna be your banker right yeah okay I don't have a banker you can be my banker I don't have one at that point I had factors I had that I couldn't get it I couldn't get an invite people ask me why do you own your company 100 percent I couldn't get an investor nobody would invest in me as I ended up with the company 100 I couldn't even get a bank loan I had to go to people and say I literally paid twenty six percent interest for the first almost 20 years of my company 17 years of my car which is predator which is predator but I could I was giving them receivables from McDonald's and Coca Cola and Pepsi and General Motors I didn't have access to capital and that's just you know that's that's one of the things that's very challenging especially for people of color so I just said it is what it is but it's not an excuse I'm gonna take care of myself I'm gonna take care of my mother I'm gonna take care of my family we gotta get this done no excuses we don't run up to the wall we run through the walls right so he says to me minuchin calls me up he says I'm having my 50th birthday I want you to come I say okay so I my wife he says you know you have to wear all white we go we go to his 50th birthday and on one side of me I got this guy I said how you doing what's your name go Steve Schwarzman okay hey Steve how you doing it and the other guy Howard Marks okay hey Howard how you doing and then you know and Steve and I start talking he's like hey you know I really like chatting with you won't we have lunch okay you know I'm sitting there and she was like you know I got this company a private equity man it's like I don't know what trillion dollars whatever it is and he says you know I like the way you think I want you to meet with my guy who runs media his name is Peter Wallace Mike Wallace's grandson from 60 minutes ago it's Mike Wallace secuence up oh yeah I want to meet him right so I go meet Peter I said Schwartzman wants you and I to me so I'm sitting here talking to you he and I just talking each other for about an hour nothing really to talk about all right nice to chat with you Peter I go to breakfast with Howard Marks 7:00 in the morning I don't know all these private equity guys wanna have breakfast like 7:00 in the morning [Laughter] so so I'm sitting with Howard and Howard's like yeah Wow he goes listen mangos I really like you he said you're really smart he said you ever need anything you call me he goes my phone is right down here we managed about 100 billion I said all right I'll call you so I go to try and get in the process to buy The Weather Channel and the bank won't let me in there like who are you so my name is Byron they they go do you have the money to buy The Weather Channel I said I think so I can get it because you can get them like not but click right hang on all right so I call up Schwartzman gets me in Peter Wallace gets me in to the process right and there was a guy sandy GRU Shaw who was on the board of the Weather Channel he used to be the chairman of Fox and they went to him and he said Byron Allen wants to be in the process and he kind of laughed he chuckled he says I don't know how to say this to you I ran Fox and this guy from his dining room table ate our breakfast lunch and dinner we had meetings about how fierce he was as a competitor and stole time periods from us and we have meetings on like how to deal with him let him in the process put him in the process he will figure it out right so I get in the process and we had this private equity foreign law office said in last minute they changed the deal up on us and I don't know what that was all about you know like he said yeah this is your interest rate but then I want flex terms and then we can like we can increase it by five times I'm like what the hell's wrong with you so I said you're out all right and my lawyers said to me were you gonna get three hundred and ten million bucks in 24 hours you need to show Bain and Blackstone three hundred and ten million bucks or you're out I said no problem I'll get it woke up the next morning Friday five minute Friday and I called up how remarks I said Howell we have an opportunity because the way I always looked at it is money is not the real commodity there's 20 trillion dollars floating around us right the real commodity is the entrepreneur the unstoppable punch entrepreneur who can get that money back with a great return I'm the commodity so I called up Howard and I said Howard I have an opportunity for you we can buy The Weather Channel and here's what we can get it at and it's a great price blah blah blah it's Friday morning Howard said don't move and he said call this guy he'll be in your office on Monday guy came in sat my conference room for four hours we went through everything he said this the most amazing business story I've ever heard he says you're gonna get a term sheet tonight and a commitment letter tomorrow morning close on the Weather Channel so Howard gave me 310 million in one day and that was because we had breakfast right of course at 7:00 in the morning it's just wake up and go walking yeah well off whatever strawberries right so we closed on the Weather Channel and how it gave me like seven years six or seven years to pay him back and I'm like no no no I gave him the money back five months later and so so I get an email from Howard I'm gonna keep this Heba email my frame it was like he email like 4:30 in the morning I'm like what you doing up how and he says you don't know this but we're public you may not know this we're publicly treating and you or you were a shining star in our quarterly report because not only did you give back that 310 million but she gave it back in five months and at 30 million dollar thank you right and five months he goes that's one of the best returns we've seen in a wall all the time he goes if you ever need capital you call me first you don't need to call anybody else just call me I got you and I said thank you Howard and so we bought The Weather Channel a year and a half ago and it's been a great investment for us we've increased revenue we just want our first end me Amy we just hit our highest ratings and since 2012 and it's been great and so I started buying other companies I bought started buying TV stations big for network affiliates so now sports yeah well I did that too well that was different on this one I bought the big four network affiliates under Allen media broadcasting okay so ABC NBC CBS and Fox in the last six months I've invested about four hundred and fifty five million in that category I plan to invest billions more buying cuz my goal is to be when I met my wife almost 20 years ago she said what are you doing I said I'm building the world's biggest media company it always comes back to my wife I said happy wife happy life it is hey beautiful do you want to ride along with me she said sure so we will be so we're gonna invest a lot of capital and buying big for network affiliates that is something that is the the absolute foundation of our community local news weather sports so right now we own about 15 min 15 stations and 11 markets it's a great business you're talking about the regional sports networks the regional sports networks I did that personally and it's the only thing I've ever done personally because I don't like to take capital and you know in the debt market and and and deploy it unless I control it 100% and the regional sports networks Sinclair is running that and I did it personally because I have a relationship with Sinclair I'm one of their largest providers and that was the purchase of the 21 regional sports networks from Walt Disney from the Disney company for ten point six billion right but that's me personally with Sinclair the two of us that's not Alen media because they're running that and if I take money from the debt markets I have to be the one to carry the ball into the end zones then no excuses I'll put the ball in the hoop every time so I didn't control that Leahey if I'm passing the ball to you stand clear this has to come out of me out of my family office and that's the only thing I've ever done outside of my corporation 110% everything else is in my corporation for me and my family so that's really it so I've just been buying companies and I've just been building my focus is media I left cable networks I love broadcast networks I love digital properties and we now see a pathway to double-digit growth yep Wow so that's really kind of weird where that's been the story I think for us I think there's a great opportunity to look 100 years ago it was the Industrial Revolution and 100 years ago the Industrial Revolution was funded I mean it was fueled by gas and oil today 100 years later it's the digital revolution and the digital revolution is funded it's fueled by content content is the new oil content is the new gas and oil and my goal is to be the Rockefeller of content and that's what I'm doing I'm just I'm pushing out the content for all devices completely agnostic and on and that's why we own so so many platforms so that's really it well there you have it ladies and gentlemen mr. Allen so what I would say in closing there are a lot of you here if you ever want to chat email me I'm happy to chat about anything my email is Byron at es dot TV Byron at es TV this is a community I don't know I've never seen all these beautiful people before in my life so hopefully we can be new friends and I hope everything if anything I can do to help and give you advice on you think you're looking at let me know thank you all right that's great thank you the 2019 Greenwich economic forum is brought to you by Bridgewater associates meaningful work meaningful relationships churchill asset management Nuveen a leading provider of senior and uni trenched debt to middle market companies ropes and grey bright past brilliant future aurora capital inspiring partnerships and gramercy funds management we are emerging markets special considerations to Bank of America life's better when we are connected Noah Private Wealth Management a leading wealth and asset management service provider in China go tae Jun on futures a leading brokerage firm for commodity futures and financial futures in China China industrial securities a comprehensive Financial Group providing full spectrum financial services in Hong Kong and Titan Advisors built like a hedge fund special thanks to the Financial Times and Greenwich Business Institute for hosting us and thank you to all the sponsors who helped make this event possible we'll be right back after these messages don't go away [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Traders Network Show

Views: 13,491

Keywords: 1800pr, mediarelations, thought leadership, interview, traders network show

Id: GC4jvoyp5Rg

Length: 45min 54sec (2754 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 03 2020