Barry Diller and John Malone, two of the cleverest men in the media business, were happy allies for years. Their business relationship began in the early 1990s, when Malone heard that Diller was leaving Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to become an entrepreneur. Malone rang Diller to ask what he might do next.

The men discovered that they were both enchanted with the possibilities of interactive media, and Diller soon found himself investing in – and running – QVC, a shopping network on cable television part-owned by Malone’s Liberty Media.