Getting to YES: Leo Hindery Jr.'s pitched battle with Cablevision's Jimmy Dolan was only his latest fight. He thrives on deals, fear and speed - Profile - Biography

Chief Executive, The, July, 2003 by Bernard Gavzer

Sure, he's scared when he settles his stocky frame into the straight and narrow sport seat of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. And, as he now recalls that precise moment at LeMans in June 2002, it is once again, in living color, Leo J. Hindery Jr. actually at the wheel, pressing the accelerator and zooming the length of a football field in one second.

For Hindery, 55, the whole world compresses itself into the most extraordinary thoughts and sensations during the 61.6 seconds that he zips along the Mulsanne Straight, a 3.5-mile stretch of LeMans. "I learned a long time ago that if you're not scared getting in the car, then don't get in, and if you're scared doing it, get out," Hindery says. "Well, it's like nothing you'll ever do in your life. Time stands still. It's almost churchlike."

Well, sir, is making multibillion-dollar deals anything like it? Is getting George Steinbrenner to sign on the dotted line, working at the elbow of John Malone (a k a the King of Cable), launching the YES network--a regional cable sports gorilla, broadcasting the New York Yankees, the New Jersey Nets and England's Manchester United soccer team--anything close?

In fact, Hindery does see similarities between auto racing and dealmaking: They both require teams of dedicated individuals and they both require a quality that exceeds mere passion. That certainly describes Hindery. Back in 1986, while he was at the wheel of a stock car in Concord, N.C., Hindery broke his neck and fractured his jaw in eight places. During his intensive treatment, he suffered a complete shutdown of his liver and, as he tells it, teetered on the edge of death.

The latest battle Hindery finds himself in is truly worthy of his derring-do. By the time he was hired as chairman and CEO of the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network in September 2001, the enterprise had gone through dizzying machinations involving Steinbrenner, the imperious Yankees owner, and James L. Dolan, the jet-setting president and CEO of Cablevision, the nation's sixth-largest cable operator. Cablevision owned the MSG cable network, which had shown Yankee games for 14 years until its contract with the team expired. YES demanded that Cablevision charge each of its subscriber households up to $2 a month extra for the privilege of receiving the channel. Cablevision balked, arguing that it should charge only those customers who had specifically requested YES.

Dolan and Hindery were longtime pals, but that didn't assure love taps in their ensuing battle. The well-publicized impasse between Cablevision and YES caused a blackout of 130 Yankee games for 3 million Cablevision subscribers in 2002. Both companies endured the wrath not only of frustrated Yankee fans but also of a highly critical press. But Cablevision may have borne the brunt of the ire. It's customer-satisfaction ranking fell to the lowest level among all cable providers, satellite operators and phone companies, according to an annual poll by J.D. Powers & Associates. Cablevision also suffered a significant drop in its stock price (which began to rise more recently due to speculation that the conglomerate will be dismantled).

Ultimately, it took the determined hand of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to force the two parties into a binding one-year deal. Roughly 1.9 million Cablevision subscribers were offered the option of receiving YES for $1.95 a month, paying $4.95 for a fuller sports package or upgrading their service to premium cable. An additional 1.1 million subscribers immediately began receiving YES as part of their premium packages. But five weeks after they signed the agreement in April, Hindery and Dolan were at odds again, disagreeing over how many of Cablevision's subscribers had chosen to pay for YES. As for a long-term agreement, the two sides will have to submit to binding arbitration if mediation fails to produce a deal by next spring, when the current deal expires.

As Hindery sees it, the current agreement curtails the ability of a vertically integrated cable operator, such as Cablevision, to discriminate against an independent programmer. Still not satisfied, he says he wants to push Congress to enact legislation that would prevent all major cable operators from being able to freeze out independents such as YES.

Brinkmanship with AT&T

Hindery certainly knows how to play with the big boys. Earlier, he helped build TCI into a cable powerhouse and sold it to AT&T, then engineered the acquisition of MediaOne Group. In other words, he helped persuade C. Michael Armstrong to spend more than $100 billion to build a cable empire. But Hindery got out before it became apparent that AT&T would blow the broadband opportunity (see sidebar, p. 49).

The $62.5 billion MediaOne deal, completed in 2000, shows what the man is made of. As CEO of AT&T Broadband, Hindery sat across the negotiating table from Brian Roberts, president of Comcast, who also lusted after MediaOne. Had Roberts ratcheted up the bid, Hindery would have had to walk away--AT&T simply didn't have any more cash. But Hindery knew that acquiring MediaOne was vital to AT&T's long-range plans. So he took a gamble. He told Roberts that if Comcast would avoid a bidding war, he would get him Lenfest Communications, which owned Philadelphia area cable stations that Roberts long coveted. Roberts agreed.