Page 62 - Forbes - USA (March 2018)

Th e World’ s billion a i re s | T EC H D ISR U PTOR S

c
ROccO OMMISSO immigration, in the business world, I don’t think there’s anoth-
er one like me in the last 100 years,” he says.
owns the company outright, and its value constitutes virtually

his entire fortune. Thanks to a white-hot mergers-and-acquisi- ROCCO COMMISSO GREW UP in Calabria, Italy, as the country
tions market, the business is worth an estimated $4.3 billion— reeled from its defeat in World War II. “We were losers,” he
and Commisso, who makes his debut on Forbes’ Billionaires says. “Just like the Americans coming back from Vietnam, we
list this year, seems ready to cash out. came back as losers.” Commisso’s father, Giuseppe, served in
He founded Mediacom at a time of industry upheaval, North Africa during the war and was captured in 1942 by the
when new federal regulations, which both restricted prices British. He spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp in
and increased competition, were scaring small cable operators Kenya. When he returned home, work was scarce.
into selling. As others jumped ship, he leveraged about $3 mil- In 1956, Giuseppe sailed to the United States to start anew.
lion—most of his small fortune—to start buying the cheap- “What a great country, America,” Rocco says. “Prisoners of
est cable lines available, concentrating on secondary markets war got preferential treatment to come here.” Rocco, mean-

in states like Iowa and Georgia. Even his offices are far off the while, stayed back in Italy with his mother and two sisters. In

beaten path: Mediacom HQ is in Chester, New York, a verdant 1962, when he was 12, they joined his older brother and father
speck of 12,000 people, 25 minutes from West Point. in Baden, Pennsylvania, 10 miles from Joe Namath’s home-
Commisso is as much a financier as he is a cable guy—he town. The family moved to the Bronx the following year.

has an M.B.A. from Columbia and spent nine years as CFO of From the outset, New York City brought good luck. Just
Cablevision Industries. Mediacom’s rapid growth was enabled after Commisso arrived, he spotted an ad for a talent compe-

by arbitraging differing perceptions of cable assets in the debt tition. He entered as a solo accordion act and won, which led

and equity markets. Banks, reassured by the sector’s predict- to a gig playing intermission music at the Wakefield Theatre
able cash flows, were will- on East 233rd Street in the Bronx. More important, it drew the

ing to lend at reasonable attention of the Wakefield’s manager, who wrote a letter to a
rates even as investors, Commisso local Catholic school, Mount Saint Michael Academy, and got
spooked by regulation, Commisso admitted without an entrance exam, which he had
were willing to sell cheap- borrowed arrived too late to take. “I ended up being the only kid that
ly. In his first five years in to the ever got in without taking the test,” he says.

business, Commisso made Commisso is now one of the largest benefactors of Mount

more than 20 acquisitions. precipice Saint Michael. But back then he could barely afford to pay his
Mediacom at one point of own way. As a teenager he worked long hours at his brother’s
accumulated $3 billion in diner to come up with the $300 annual tuition.
debt, over eight times op- insolvency. When college application time rolled around, Commis-

erating cash flow. so again relied on a favor. His gym teacher called the soccer
Commisso admits he coach at Columbia University and told him about a promising
borrowed to the preci- student with good grades. Within a month, Commisso, who
pice of insolvency, but he hadn’t even played soccer in high school, was accepted to the

stayed afloat by keeping an eagle eye on costs and by metic- prestigious college with a full scholarship.
ulously managing his debt. “You know, we watch the store,” A natural athlete, Commisso had shown a knack for the

he says. sport in Italy under starkly different conditions: on cement,

But now the core business is changing. The broadband gen- with a ball made of rags. That training somehow translated to

eration is increasingly cutting the cord and relying on online the Ivy League turf. By his senior year he was cocaptain of the

services like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to enter- varsity squad and was invited to try out for the 1972 Olympic

tain themselves. Over the past ten years, the number of sub- team. The trials went terribly. Commisso arrived out of shape,

scribers to Mediacom’s television offerings has plummeted with the lung strength of a smoker; the other players ran laps
38% to 821,000. This is a faster rate of decline than the 3% the around him. Still, his legacy remains strong at Columbia,

industry as a whole has suffered. which named its soccer stadium for him in 2013, in recogni-
Mediacom’s woes in television are fueled, in part, by its suc- tion of the millions of dollars he has donated to the university.

cess in broadband. Commisso has aggressively invested in tech After graduating in 1971, Commisso found work at a Pfi-

upgrades; customers in places like Cecil, Georgia, enjoy Inter- zer plant in Brooklyn, a job he kept even after beginning an

net speeds on par with those in Seattle and San Francisco. Me- M.B.A. program at Columbia in 1974. Each day he rose at 7
diacom’s broadband subscriber base has increased 84% over a.m., attended class, then headed to the plant. At midnight,
the last decade, far outpacing the industry average of 54%— when his shift ended, he spent two hours on the subway get-

and many customers are using their lightning-fast connections ting home to the Bronx.
to watch TV and movies online. Commisso graduated with one of Columbia’s top honors,
Hence the temptation for Commisso to cash out soon. In the Business School Service Award, and a plan to go into in-

his mind, there is little left to prove. “In the history of Italian vestment banking. But no offers came in. “There was discrimi-
60 | FORBES MARCH 31, 2018