Realizing a Dream

By the 1970s, UCC had grown to more than 4,400 employees. The brothers continued to steer the company toward greatness, and began to use their resources and friends in support of an evolving appreciation for public service and charitable giving.

UCC continued in its growth mode. One of the company's new start-ups — the telecommunications company Datran — competed with AT&T in a battle that ultimately led to the break-up of Ma Bell. Fortune Senior Editor Gene Bylinsky wrote that Sam was "one of the most, if not the most, important entrepreneurs" of the century.

Datran succumbed to competitive pressures in the late 1970s, and eventually filed for reorganization. Undeterred, Sam and Charles pressed on with ambitious plans for UCC. The company became more aggressive in marketing software and continued to blaze a trail in computer service operations. UCC expanded to more than 20 countries.

In the late 1970s, Sam and Charles began to focus on the oil refining and mining company Earth Resources, as well as Bonanza Steakhouse restaurants. The Wylys found that their unique brand of entrepreneurship and keen business sense yielded success in multiple fields and commercial ventures.

The Wylys sold Earth Resources in November 1980, the same month that oil prices peaked. Charles and Sam spent the 1980s and 1990s leading a number of enormously successful companies, including Michaels Stores, a Dallas-based merchant of arts, crafts and hobby goods, and Sterling Software, created in 1980 to focus on business software and services. This period saw the brothers undertake the first hostile acquisition in the history of the software industry, as Sterling acquired Informatics, a company whose revenues were 10 times that of Sterling.

In 1989, Bonanza Steakhouse, under the name USACafes, was sold to Ponderosa Steakhouse. Under the leadership of the Wylys, the chain had grown from a few locations to a 600-restaurant empire.

In 1991, the hedge fund Maverick Capital was founded as the family's first investment enterprise. Less than six years later, Sam founded Green Mountain Energy Company, to sell clean electricity.

In March 2000, the Wyly brothers sold Sterling Software to Computer Associates for $4 billion and, just days after the sale, sold Sterling Commerce to SBC for $3.9 billion.