Billionaire investor and real estate titan Kirk Kerkorian died Monday night, MGM Resorts International confirmed Tuesday.
Kerkorian, who played an influential role in the rise of Las Vegas and once tried unsuccessfully to take over automaker Chrysler, was 98.
Clark Dumont, a spokesman for MGM Resorts International, confirmed Kerkorian’s death.
“MGM Resorts and our family of 62,000 employees are honoring the memory of a great man, a great business leader, a great community leader, an innovator, and one of our country’s greatest generation, MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren said in a statement. “Mr. Kerkorian combined brilliant business insight with steadfast integrity to become one of the most reputable and influential financiers of our time.”
Kerkorian, who held a majority of MGM Resorts International’s stock until recent years and previously owned the separate MGM Studios, had net worth of $4 billion, according to Forbes estimates. That made him the 393rd wealthiest person in the world.
An early gamble paid off handsomely for Kerkorian. In the 1960s, he purchased 80 acres of property on the Las Vegas strip where the Caesars casino now stands in a deal later viewed as a brilliant speculative play.
In 1969, he purchased the Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios and opened the International Hotel in Las Vegas, luring Barbra Streisand as its first headliner and, later, Elvis Presley.
Kerkorian opened the original MGM Grand Hotel in 1973 and, in a different location two decades later, he opened the still-standing 5,000-room MGM Grand Hotel.
More recently, he played a central role in the development of the sprawling, $8.5 billion City Center casino resort destination on the Las Vegas Strip.
Kerkorian owned MGM Studios from 1969-1990 and 1996-2005. He sold the company to Ted Turner in the late 1980s, but later regained control from a French bank before offloading the company for a second time to a Sony-led consortium.
His business exploits included a failed bid in 1996 to take over one of the Big Three automakers, Chrysler, which was still an independent company at the time. Chrysler instead sold out to Germany-based Daimler-Benz.
In 2006, Kerkorian purchased nearly 1/10th of General Motors’ stock and pushed the company to merge with Nissan and Renault. Though GM appointed a Kerkorian representative to its board, the company spurned his merger push, and Kerkorian sold off his stake.
Three years later, GM filed for bankruptcy — and Chrysler, too.
Born in California to Armenian immigrant parents, Kerkorian was the youngest of four children. He dropped out of school and became an amateur boxer before joining the Royal Air Force to fly supply planes in a famously dangerous route from Canada to Britain during World War II.
In the years after the war, he minted a fortune off a business called Trans International Airlines, which got its start when Kerkorian acquired surplus war planes to ferry gamblers to Las Vegas.
Kerkorian’s company, Tracinda Corp., was named after his daughters Tracy and Linda. He had several marriages, at least three of which ended in divorce.
Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/06/16/kirk-kerkorian-dead-las-vegas-chrysler/28804065/
