Bleak Future.

What is clear is that by 1988, the future wasn't getting any brighter for the family business. Trade barriers were being pulled down and local companies were swamped by a flood of cheap imports. "I thought, how can I be a pioneer like my father?" recalls Mr. Eurnekian, who has never married and works legendarily long hours. "I thought: communications." That year, he invested in an almost-bankrupt cable-television company and bought a small business newspaper.

He set to work buying up cable licenses for greater Buenos Aires, a region of 13 million people, and, as his cash flow grew, bought a television channel and a radio station. His main textile plant was gradually gutted and filled with journalists and technicians.

Mr. Eurnekian's move was well timed. Attracted by President Carlos Menem's aggressive free-market policies and Argentina's relative affluence, U.S. cable operators began scouting for acquisitions here. In 1994, Mr. Eurnekian sold a 51% stake in his Cablevision SA, then Argentina's second-largest cable operator, to Tele-Communications International Inc. of Denver for $350 million. Last year, he netted $320 million by selling most of his remaining shares to local investment giant CEI Citicorp Holdings SA.