| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 7, 2000 ISSUE | |||||||||||||
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| BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- SPECIAL REPORT -- LEADERS
Mark Schneider: United Pan-European Communications
It's the ultimate digital convergence play. A lawyer by training, Schneider came to Europe from Washington five years ago to set up a branch of his father's Denver company, UnitedGlobalCom Inc. United still owns 51% of UPC, but Schneider is running far more than a branch operation. UPC is not only providing Internet access but is also coming up with content, from TV programming in 22 languages to an Internet portal called chello. And by taking advantage of the thick cables, he's offering phone service, too. That pits Schneider against some of the biggest names in the business: France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom. But Schneider is hardly fretting. With thinly veiled contempt, he accuses the phone companies of dawdling in high-speed Net services. ''They're dragging their feet,'' he says. Here he finds agreement. ''The phone companies are in no hurry to roll this out, because it might cut into their own business,'' says Harry Hobbs, European president of rival Net access provider PSInet. SLEEPLESS. For his assault on the communications giants, Schneider has a powerful partner: Last winter, as part of an initial public offering, he sold 7.8% of the company for $333 million to Microsoft Corp. The software titan hopes to piggyback its MSN portal onto Schneider's cable backbone. And since the IPO, Schneider has raised a further $2 billion to buy 16 cable businesses around Europe. ''This guy doesn't sleep much,'' says George Nahon, Microsoft's director of Internet & Communications in Europe. The buying spree has tripled Schneider's TV subscription base, to 6 million. And UPC, listed in Amsterdam and on the Nasdaq, has skyrocketed to a market cap of $18 billion, even though its revenues were just $419 million last year. One big obstacle lies between Schneider and his vast European ambition: Germany. So far, he hasn't been able to win a deal for a piece of Deutsche Telekom's enormous cable-TV business, which regulators are pushing the former monopoly to sell. DT CEO Ron Sommer, he growls, is playing keep-away with the cable business, thwarting would-be competitors by only offering to sell it in small pieces. ''I can't blame him,'' says Schneider, adding that he would ''clobber'' DT in the phone business if he got his hands on that German cable operation. Schneider's drive is finally pushing the phone companies to roll out high-speed Net services of their own. That promises to make the battle for Internet customers brutal. No matter who wins, though, much of the credit for wiring Europe will belong to the onetime Washington lawyer working out of Amsterdam. By Stephen Baker _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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RELATED ITEMS Europe's Top e.business Leaders Ola Ahlvarsson: Result Venture Knowledge International Tomasz Czechowicz: Poland.com Nina Brink: World Online International N.V. Hasso Plattner: SAP Renato Soru: Tiscali Mark Schneider: United Pan-European Communications Kurt Hellstrom: Ericsson Ernesto Schmitt: peoplesound.com Chahram Becharat: Europ@web Paulus Neef: Pixelpark AG INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | ||||||||
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