Werner Returns to Cable with Liberty
By Karen Brown -- Multichannel News, 9/10/2001 8:55:00 AM
Tony Werner has come full circle in less than a year.
The former AT&T Broadband chief technical officer -- who left for start-up Aurora Networks Inc. in October, then moved on to Qwest Communications International Inc. in June to become its vice president of strategic technology -- confirmed Friday that he has resigned that post to become CTO at Liberty Media Corp.
Liberty was spun off from AT&T Corp. this summer. Werner said Liberty came courting him recently and 'it was just something I could not turn down.'
'I think it is a bunch of stuff,' he added. 'I just think a lot of Liberty and the management team there, and obviously [chairman] John Malone's creativity and insights, and [chief operating officer] Gary Howard and [president] Dob Bennett are both just incredibly competent and so is the rest of their staff. That and them looking like they are going to [reach] between 20 [million] and 30 million subscribers on a global basis makes it a pretty cool job.'
Not only does the move keep him in Denver, but it also brings him back to the cable fold. As Liberty's CTO, Werner will have several projects on his plate, not the least of which is the company's recent acquisition of six German cable companies from Deutsche Telekom AG.
'Obviously, the new cable systems will be a priority, but they also have lots of other technology investments and [Liberty] Livewire [Corp.] and other things that I will hopefully be able to provide assistance with,' Werner said. 'I'm actually really excited about it.'
In particular, Liberty's German cable-system acquisition will provide 'a chance to create a model like we have had in the United States with the assets over there,' Werner said.
Still, he added, he is a bit embarrassed about spending less than four months at Qwest.
'I couldn't be more excited, and I feel bad for spending such a short period of time at Qwest. But at the end of the day, these opportunities don't come up that often, and you kind of have to do it,' he said. 'Qwest is a great company, but I am delighted to be back on the cable side.'
Diller Goes Easy On Liberty
02/06/2008Liberty Media Buys Into Sirius XM Radio
02/21/2009Liberty Eyes Second German Cable Bid
07/21/2002Could Liberty Latch Onto NBCU?
10/03/2009Malone Secures Deal for German Systems
09/09/2001
