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Wow, that guy started with $60,000 and now has over $9 billion! Impressive:
A deal maker's long career of bold investments
1947: Kirk Kerkorian buys an air charter called Los Angeles Air Service for $60,000. It owns a DC-3, a Beechcraft and a Cessna. The company is later renamed Trans International Airlines.
1962: Sells the airline to Studebaker Corp.
1964: Buys back the airline.
1968: Sells the carrier to Transamerica for stock that eventually nets him $104 million.
1968: Acquires controlling 30% stake in Los Angeles-based Western Airlines.
1969: Forms International Leisure Corp. and sells 17% to the public for $26.5 million. The company acquires the Flamingo hotel-casino in Las Vegas and builds the International, the first successful Las Vegas casino not on the Strip.
1969: Purchases control of Culver City-based Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
1970-71: Sells two Las Vegas hotels to Hilton Hotels.
1973: Reenters casino gambling with construction of MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
1976: Sells remaining 17% stake in Western Airlines back to the company for $30.6 million.
1978: Accumulates 25.5% stake in Columbia Pictures. After overcoming antitrust objections, attempts a takeover but gives up in 1980 after a bitter battle with management.
1980: Spins off MGM casino operations into separate public company, retaining controlling stakes in both.
1981: Arranges MGM acquisition of United Artists after losing out to Marvin Davis in bid to acquire 20th Century Fox.
1982: Creates MGM/UA Home Entertainment to license MGM films for home video, sells 15% of the stock to the public, then buys it back.
1983: Makes but then withdraws offer to buy all shares of MGM/UA that he doesn't own.
1984: Makes abortive effort to acquire control of Walt Disney Productions.
1985: Spins off United Artists as a separate public company. Buys the 30% of MGM Grand Hotels he doesn't own for $126 million and months later sells its Las Vegas and Reno hotels to Bally Manufacturing for $440 million.
1986: Ted Turner buys MGM for $1.5 billion, but a financial squeeze forces him to sell back MGM's name, logo and production and distribution assets. Turner keeps about 3,000 film titles.
1987: Kerkorian starts luxury airline MGM Grand Air. Agrees to buy the venerable Desert Inn and Sands hotels on the Las Vegas Strip from Summa Corp.
1990: Italian businessman Giancarlo Parretti buys MGM/UA for $1.3 billion. Within a year, lender Credit Lyonnais seizes the studio when Parretti fails to make payments.
1990: Kerkorian buys 9.8% of Chrysler Corp.
1991: Makes a failed bid for Trans World Airlines with TWA unions.
1992: MGM Grand Air shuts down.
1995: Makes a bid for Chrysler but is unsuccessful.
1996: Buys MGM for the third time for $1.3 billion, with Australian broadcaster Seven Network.
1998: Buys out Seven Network, gaining a 90% interest in the company. Acquires PolyGram's film library.
2000: MGM Grand buys Mirage Resorts for $4.4 billion.
2000: Kerkorian files a $9-billion securities fraud suit against DaimlerChrysler over the German automaker's merger with Chrysler.
2001: Cuts stake in DaimlerChrysler almost a third.
2002: Seeks a new buyer for the MGM studio.
2004: MGM Mirage announces it will buy Mandalay Resort Group, dramatically increasing Kerkorian's investment on the Las Vegas Strip.
April: A federal court rules for DaimlerChrysler in Kerkorian's suit.
April:
Sony Corp (SNE.N). and partners complete a $4.9-billion purchase of MGM from Kerkorian.
May: Kerkorian announces that he owns nearly 4% of General Motors and says he intends to double his stake.
Wednesday: His company says it increased its GM ownership to 7.2%, missing Kerkorian's investment target.
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