day for advice on "fixing the perception of a feud" between the two men. I couldn't offer much. Most of the reporters who covered the industry not only believed that there was a feud, but had written about it SO much that they now had a stake in its outcome. I suggested that Malone fax a handwritten note expressing his support for Mike. (True to form, Malone wrote the letter on ruled paper, with no letterhead, and signed it "John." Armstrong's secretary had to pencil in "Ma- lone.") The full text of the note gives some insight into the real source of Malone's discomfort-not strategy, but "deal-making execution": Mike- I really appreciated the presentations at the Board retreat, espe- cially Chuck's obvious involvement. Clearly, the deal-making exe- cution of the basic strategy will be critical in building long-term shareholder value in each of the businesses. I don't know why the media keep trying to create a rift between us-I think AT&T couldn't have a better CEO than Mike Arm- strong during this difficult period. If I can help in any way, please let me know. John [Malone] I gave copies of the note to several reporters, but I don't think it affected their writing in any obvious way. I guess it was just hard to believe that someone who had lost a billion dollars in a company could have anything but hard feelings about its management. The only tech- nique that seemed to work was one that I had used before. The next time Leslie Cauley ventured to write about Armstrong and Malone, I arranged for them to be interviewed together, even though it meant that Malone had to rush back to Denver from a charity event in New York and Armstrong had to delay his departure from a meeting in Denver by several hours. They did the interview from a small room at Tough Calls Liberty Media's airplane hangar, hunched over a speakerphone. It wasn't much of a story-which was the whole idea. Board Retreat The board retreat mentioned in Malone's note was the climactic meet- ing in September 2000 at which Noski laid out the company's precari