Risk-Prone Rogers

Ted Rogers exercises enormous power over Canada’s communications industry; as such, he deserves the attention he gets in High Wire Act: Ted Rogers and the Empire That Debt Built, an exhaustively researched biography by financial journalist Caroline Van Hasselt. He is the fourth most wealthy Canadian, as ranked by Canadian Business magazine, with a net worth in 2006 that exceeded $4 billion. In a nation remarkably short of entrepreneurs, Rogers is something of an icon—a serial dealmaker who aggressively pursued his dreams with the kind of ardour one usually finds south of the border. He is feared by competitors, revered by the investment community and often reviled by customers.

That he succeeded by breaking all the usual rules of business management makes the story even more interesting. Rogers tempted fate by overloading his company with debt, not once but many times. The fact that he survived and prospered is a testament to his...