Billionaire Investor Kirk Kerkorian Dead At 98

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian died Tuesday at the age of 98, leaving behind a legacy which included the automotive industry in his twilight years.

Aside from his numerous holdings in Las Vegas casinos — including MGM Resorts International — air charter businesses, and movie studios, Kerkorian held shares among all of the Detroit Three, Bloomberg reports.

Though he once sold one of his businesses to Studebaker — only to buy it back two years later — Kerkorian’s dealings in Detroit began in 1990, when he acquired nearly 10 percent of Chrysler’s stock after being impressed by then-chairman Lee Iacocca. Five years after, he and Iacocca were rebuffed by the automaker and its then-new chairman, Bob Eaton, when the duo sought to buy the remaining 90 percent of the automaker for $22.8 billion; Daimler AG would buy Chrysler three years later.

Though he initially supported the so-called “merger of equals” — his outside analysis helped lead the two companies down the aisle, Automotive News says — he sued DaimlerChrysler for $3 billion in damages in 2000 for misleading him with said merger. Kerkorian would ultimately lose his suit in 2005, his appeal of the federal trial verdict also proving unsuccessful.

Two years later, Kerkorian sought to buy Chrysler once more, offering $4.6 billion to Daimler before being outbid by Cerberus.

Around the same time of the Cerberus bid, he bought nearly 10 percent of General Motors shares, selling them back a year later after his patience ran out with the automaker’s management when he failed to convince then-CEO Rick Wagoner to join forces with Renault-Nissan. He also lost $600 million in 2008 selling his 6.5 percent stake in Ford — citing a lack of confidence the Blue Oval could turn its fortunes around — which he had purchased for over $1 billion in the same year.

[Photo credit: Greg Gjerdingen/ Flickr/ CC BY 2.0]