After the AT&T deal, Malone ramped up investment in British satellite-TV and cable operations, in large part because his controlling stake in U.S. satellite-operator DirecTV made it difficult for him to get back into cable across the Atlantic.

“Antitrust authorities would not have been enthused about my re-entry into cable in the U.S. until I exited” satellite- TV, Malone said. “Europe seemed like a fertile place.”

In May, Malone got back into the U.S. cable market when his Liberty Media paid $2.6 billion for 27 percent of Charter Communications Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. cable operator. As part of the deal, Liberty agreed not to raise its stake in Charter above 40 percent.

At Liberty Global today, Malone’s role is more financial than technical, and he personally analyzes most acquisitions and arranges complex purchases to minimize tax, according to Adam Singer, who worked as chief operating officer at TCI International under Malone.

“Every time he does a deal, his two questions are: ‘What are the tax implications?’ and ‘What’s the exit?’” Singer said.

Germany has long been tough on Malone. In 2001, he set his sights on the television operations of former phone monopoly Deutsche Telekom AG. That’s the same business that became Kabel Deutschland and was bought by Vodafone.

German antitrust regulators rejected Malone’s bid after he refused to spend what was needed to upgrade the cable systems to provide high-speed Internet and telephone in competition with Deutsche Telekom. Malone went on to buy the country’s second-and third-largest cable operators and merge them.

Ted Turner

In the U.K., Malone encountered a similar setback in 2002 when bondholders declined to sell their debt as Liberty sought to take over Telewest Communications Plc and NTL, then Britain’s two largest cable-TV companies.

Malone knows how to be patient. In February, he pulled off this year’s second-biggest telecom deal, paying $16 billion for Virgin Media, which was formed through a merger of NTL and Telewest -- the companies Malone was shut out of over a decade earlier.