KERKORIAN ‘FASCINATED WITH MAKING DEALS’
By John Gallagher
Detroit Free Press, MI
April 28 2008
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Kirk Kerkorian’s latest bid for a hefty stake in an American automaker
has some people asking why the 90-year-old Las Vegas dealmaker cares
so much about Detroit metal.
Since the reclusive billionaire rarely does interviews, his biography
will have to provide any clues.
That personal history shows strong evidence that, once intrigued by
an idea, Kerkorian pursues it relentlessly.
Whatever he fancies, Kerkorian certainly has the money to go for
it. Forbes Magazines estimates Kerkorian’s fortune at $18 billion,
making him the seventh-wealthiest American.
The son of Armenian immigrants who ran a produce business in Fresno,
Calif., Kerkorian quit school as a teenager to go to work. He spent
a year in the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, served
as a military pilot during World War II, and after the war ran a
small air-charter service to ferry gamblers between Los Angeles and
Las Vegas.
Kerkorian paid $60,000 for the charter service in 1947, when he was
30. In 1968, he sold it to Trans-america Corp. for a little over $100
million. It was his first fortune, and a banker friend, Walter Sharp,
said much later the transaction transformed Kerkorian.
"Kirk realized then that everything was in the timing," Sharp said
in 1995. "He became fascinated with the idea of making deals."
And deals there were. For a man so intensely private, he showed a
remarkable taste for splashy investments, mostly in Las Vegas. With
the proceeds of his airline sale, he acquired the Flamingo hotel there
in 1967. It was just the first of several casino-hotels Kerkorian
would buy, sell or build in the decades since.
Movies also have held a lure. Kerkorian bought the MGM film studio
three times between 1970 and 1996, once selling it to mogul Ted Turner
and buying it back again in a matter of months.
It was a chance encounter with Lee Iacocca that sparked Kerkorian’s
interest in Detroit. Meeting the then-automotive executive at a
Florida racetrack, Kerkorian agreed in 1990 to invest in Chrysler,
whose finances were shaky again because of slumping sales.
What followed was a tumultuous relationship with Chrysler that ended
in a nasty lawsuit. Years later, he made a run at General Motors that
ended in disappointment.