Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, Builder of Las Vegas' Biggest Hotels, Dies at 98

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, an eighth-grade dropout who built Las Vegas' biggest hotels, tried to take over Chrysler and bought and sold MGM at a profit three times, has died. He was 98.

MGM Resorts International said Kerkorian died Monday.

He built the 30-story, 1,568-room International Hotel, the world's largest hotel when it opened in the late 1960s.

When Kerkorian opened the first MGM Grand in Las Vegas in the 1970s, it was again the world's largest resort hotel, containing more than 2,000 rooms. Years later, he would build another MGM Grand, this one with more than 5,000 rooms -- and again, the world's largest.

"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," said Jim Murren, Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International. "Mr. Kerkorian combined brilliant business insight with steadfast integrity to become one of the most reputable and influential financiers of our time."

Kerkorian also bought and sold the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio three times, each time realizing a profit. He also invested heavily in the auto industry and tried unsuccessfully to take over Chrysler.

Kerkorian, who owned Beverly Hills-based private investment firm Tracinda Corporation, was known as a quiet and unpretentious individual who tried to avoid the spotlight and rarely gave interviews. He called himself a small-town boy "who got lucky."

"He was a very private guy who shunned the limelight, both in a business way and from a charitable standpoint," said Patty Glaser, his attorney of four decades.

He was born Kerkor Kerkorian in Fresno, California, in 1917, one of four children of a poor Armenian fruit grower.

During a brief boxing career, he became Pacific amateur welterweight champion. But he lacked the size to turn pro, so he went into business. During World War II, he worked for the RAF Air Transport Command in Canada, flying Mosquito bombers on dangerous delivery runs from Canada to Scotland.

After the war, he refurbished a small twin-engine plane and flew passengers between Southern California and the growing desert gambling mecca of Las Vegas. In 1947, Kerkorian bought a tiny charter line and renamed it Trans International Airlines.

Nearly two decades later, he took TIA public and the stock soared. With cash from his stock and shrewd land deals along the Strip, he built the International Hotel. Kerkorian also bought stock in financially ailing MGM.

By 1970, he had working control of the company and began a more than 30-year run of deals involving the historic studio. In 2004, he agreed to sell the studio and its lucrative library of post-1986 films to Sony Corp., Comcast and other investors for about $3 billion.

In 1985, he sold the first MGM Grand to Bally Corp. for $594 million, while retaining rights to the name.

Around that time, he also unloaded the MGM studio to cable TV mogul Ted Turner for a reported $1.5 billion. Turner sold it back just three months later for $300 million amid financial trouble but kept the library of pre-1986 MGM films, including "Gone With the Wind."

Kerkorian later sold the studio for $1.3 billion, then bought it back in 1996 for the same amount.

In Las Vegas, he opened the 5,005-room MGM Grand Hotel and Casino and went on to orchestrate the $6.4 billion merger between MGM Grand and Steve Wynn's Mirage Resorts Inc.

In 2005, the renamed MGM Mirage Inc. completed its $4.8 billion acquisition of Mandalay Resort Group. The combined company's holdings included the Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay Resort, Excalibur and seven nearby hotels.

Kerkorian set his sights on the auto industry in 1995, trying to seize control of Chrysler Corp. in a failed $23 billion hostile bid. It failed, but Tracinda Corp. became Chrysler's largest shareholder

Kerkorian made another bid for Chrysler in 2007 when DaimlerChrysler put the struggling division on the market, offering $4.5 billion. But Chrysler sold to private equity firm for $7.4 billion.

He also gave back, forming The Lincy Foundation at UNLV in 1989 to support Armenian causes. After shutting down in 2011, his assets went to The Dream Fund at the University of California, Los Angeles, that supports research and charitable projects.

Kerkorian married three times. He and his second wife had two daughters, Tracy and Linda.