Kerkorian also profited from his charter air carrier, renamed Trans International Airlines in 1960. Studebaker Corp. bought the company in 1962 and sold it back to Kerkorian in 1964.
Kerkorian took the airline public in 1965, then sold his stake in 1968 to Transamerica Corp. for stock valued at $148 million. Kerkorian realized a profit of about $100 million by the time he sold the last of his Transamerica shares in mid-1969.
Building Vegas
The late 1960s were heady times as Kerkorian stepped up his investments in Las Vegas. He bought the Flamingo Hotel for $12.5 million and built the 30-story International Hotel, which opened in July 1969.
That month, Kerkorian announced his intention to acquire control of venerable film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., even though 16 percent of the MGM stock was already in the hands of Seagram heir Edgar Bronfman. By November, after borrowing from European lenders, he had acquired 32 percent of MGM for $70 million and ousted Bronfman’s hand-picked chief executive.
Two years later, after he repaid his European debt, MGM announced that it would diversify by building a large resort hotel in Las Vegas. The 25-story MGM Grand Hotel, now Bally’s, opened in 1973.
MGM’s box-office performance proved a perennial disappointment. In four years, MGM slashed 5,000 jobs from the payroll, leaving a workforce of 1,200.
Studio Mogul
Kerkorian sought to bolster MGM’s performance by acquiring another production company. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. rebuffed his proposed stock-swap in 1971. He accumulated 25 percent of Columbia Pictures Industries in 1979 and won a federal antitrust challenge before selling the stake in 1981 for an estimated $70 million profit.
Kerkorian then acquired United Artists Corp. from Transamerica Corp. for $380 million. In 1984, he struck a deal with corporate raider Saul Steinberg to gain control of Walt Disney’s film studio and library if Steinberg acquired the company. Disney, however, paid Steinberg to go away.