{"id":2434,"date":"2026-05-10T09:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=2434"},"modified":"2026-05-10T09:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:47:34","slug":"i-lost-more-money-than-anybody-in-the-history-of-capitalism-remembering-ted-turner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=2434","title":{"rendered":"‘I lost more money than anybody in the history of capitalism!’: Remembering Ted Turner"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Ted Turner, who died this Wednesday at 87, didn\u2019t do anything halfway. In October of 2006, I got to spend a memorable evening alongside Ted Turner at the opening of his Ted\u2019s Montana Grill Restaurant in midtown Manhattan. I was invited as a \u201cplus-one\u201d by close friend and fellow Fortune<\/em> writer Pattie Sellers, who\u2019d profiled Turner for the magazine, and hence scored an invite. (Pattie was the<\/em> pioneering journalist in highlighting women\u2019s achievements as founder of the Fortune<\/em> \u201cMost Powerful Women in Business\u201d list and our renowned annual conference by that name.) The eatery happened to be situated an elevator ride from our 16th floor offices, on the ground floor of the Time & Life Building. Pattie and I walked from the art-deco style lobby into an 18th-century saloon-style fantasia featuring all manner of bison recipes from pot roast to short ribs to steak frites. Turner owned one of the world\u2019s largest bison herds and championed the fare these bearded beasts provided as a healthier and tastier alternative to beef, while boasting his Grills offered an oasis of \u201cBig Sky sustainability\u201d\u2014plastic straws, no way\u2014amid the canyon of skyscrapers.<\/p>\n

\n

When we arrived, Turner was the only other person in the restaurant. He\u2019d played a huge role in building the Time Warner media empire I worked for (Fortune<\/em> belonged to one of its largest divisions, magazine-maker Time, Inc.), and I\u2019d always wondered about the circumstances regarding his sudden, acrimonious departure five years earlier. To recap the main outline: Turner had sold Turner Broadcasting, owner of CNN, TBS, TNT and the Cartoon Network, to Time Warner in 1996, pocketing around $7.5 billion in the acquirer\u2019s stock. But in 2001, following Time Warner\u2019s sale to AOL, CEO Jerry Levin effectively fired Turner by stripping him of all management authority. Here\u2019s what puzzled me: When Turner sold his creation to Time Warner, he amassed around 11% of its shares. But to get the big payout, this restless entrepreneur reluctantly accepted severe limitations on his power, at least for awhile: The terms imposed a so-called \u201cstandstill agreement\u201d that prevented Turner from taking any hostile action versus the company, banned him from purchasing more stock, and essentially required the voluble maverick to back the Levin regime in all big things. The straight-jacket was so tight that Turner even tacitly endorsed the AOL tie-up.<\/p>\n

Prior to the AOL purchase, Turner served as Vice Chairman and oversaw his former networks. But Ted Turner didn\u2019t want to be a \u201cVice\u201d anything. So he posed a big threat to Levin. After a few years, Turner could probably escape his standstill by quitting the board, and press to axe Levin and ascend to CEO. After all, once liberated, he\u2019d wield immense power as by far the Time Warner\u2019s largest shareholder at over 10%.<\/p>\n

The Levin-orchestrated AOL transaction, however, effectively neutered Turner. It launched a blizzard of new shares that lowered his ownership in the combined enterprise by over half, to roughly 4%.<\/p>\n

Besides Pattie and myself, the only other person to show in the first hour or so was Ted\u2019s actor friend Timothy Hutton. After they chatted briefly, I got a chance to ask Ted about whether the machiavellian maneuvering I suspected actually triggered his ouster: \u201cDo you think that Jerry Levin did the AOL deal, at least in part, to dilute you and ensure you couldn\u2019t marshal your huge shareholder position to replace him as CEO?\u201d<\/p>\n

Drawled Ted Turner, \u201cI don\u2019t know if it was the main reason, but I do know that was on his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner apparently believed that Levin thought he was scoring double coup: Getting a huge premium from AOL for Time Warner shares en route to creating a combined dot-com-old media juggernaut that would drive the price higher from there\u2014and in a single stroke, also sideline his chief rival.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, shares of the new AOL Time Warner started tanking virtually on announcement of the merger. Turner was so incensed over getting canned and the way the combo was unraveling that he dumped nearly all of his Time Warner stock in 2003, after the shares had cratered almost 80%. He collected approximately $3 billion for a stake that in 1999, pre-AOL, was worth around $11 billion.<\/p>\n

Turner volunteered another declaration at Montana Grill\u2019s New York debut that evening: \u201cI lost more money than anyone in the history of capitalism!\u201d he told me. Ted Turner wanted the world to know that he always was Thinking Big, whether it was pursuing the America\u2019s Cup on the seas, transforming journalism via birthing the first 24-hour news platform at CNN, or in all likelihood, aiming to helm the world\u2019s largest media conglomerate at Time Warner. It was part of his outrageous charm that this great promoter had no qualms in broadcasting that the rare time he lost, no one lost bigger.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#lost #money #history #capitalism #Remembering #Ted #Turner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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