Beyond Tallulah: How Sam Wyly Became America's Boldest Big-Time Entrepreneur

Beyond Tallulah, the illustrated biography of Sam Wyly, the most versatile big-company entrepreneur in American history, tells one of the most compelling untold business stories of our time. Wyly has built 10 companies in nine different industries with 500 million- or billion-dollar valuations. He’s the reason that Bonanza Steakhouse, Michaels Arts & Crafts and Green Mountain Energy are household names today. And his achievements serve as a valuable point of reference for today’s generation of recession-fighting Start-up Whiz Kids. After a mercurial rise through the early computer industry in Texas, Wyly founded a data transmission company (DATRAN) with the dream of building a network of microwave towers that would enable computers to talk to each other wirelessly--20 years before the World Wide Web existed. What happened next is a case study of high-wire business dealings that speaks to the core values of American enterprise. Wyly’s dealings with entrenched interests foreshadow t