1966

You know those young hiphop cyberwizzes who make the cover of Forbes by finding ingenious ways to capitalize on the Ifonvergence of information, communications, and entertainment and parlay good ideas into mega-buck operations? Well, count our own George Blumenthal among them!

Here's the short version of the story (the movie will probably be out soon). George was your run-of-the-mill highly successfal money manager (Blumenthal Securities) until he started a wireless company, Cellular Communications Inc., which grew into one of the largest independent systems. In the early nineties he sold Cellular Communications to Pacific Telesis (it's now part of Airtouch) for $2 billion. That could have been the happy ending.

But George kept a tiny microwave transmission spin-off for himself and over the next few years started building a cable business in Britain. The company, now known as NTL, was one of the first to bundle telephone service, cable TV, and Internet access into a single service. It captured about onethird of the British residential cable-TV market and attracted high-profile shareholders like Microsoft and Comcast.

This past summer George and NTL became even bigger players when NTL offered to pay $13 billion for the consumer divisions of Cable & Wireless Communications. France Telecom will invest $5.5 billion in NTL and when the dust setdes NTL will not only have two-thirds of the cable market, but will be well positioned to compete against British Telecom in high-speed Internet services. And to think, George went to a college that had only a pay phone or two in each dorm.

Another classmate who is relying on telecommunications to build his career is Ted Temple, president of EHT Associates, a travel and hospitality business in Strathmere, N.J. "Strathmere is a small town on the coast," Ted explains, "but with computer, fax, and an 800 number, it becomes a central location for my business." Ted's wife, Barbara, is a psychotherapist and they are both proud new grandparents of Caroline, Julie's daughter bom last March.

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93 Greenridge Ave., White Plains, NY 10605; (916) 761-2709; lgeiger@aol.com

Dick Birnie '66 focuses technology on the Grant, p. 16

Advice from Gov. Angus King '66, p. 61