Word: kerkorian
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...Wagoner up to the task? Can an insider, who rose within GM, have the nerve to take the ruthless measures necessary to fix his ailing company? So far, GM's board is standing by its chairman's relatively cautious strategy. The same may not be said of Kirk Kerkorian, the casino mogul and billionaire who owns nearly 10% of GM shares. He has lost an estimated $390 million on his stake and has indicated he may seek board representation. Kerkorian tried to take over Chrysler, and while he isn't expected to try that with GM, he's likely...
...Marrandino, Wynn Las Vegas' original general manager, who has nothing but praise for Wynn, despite having been fired. "He can focus way more on space. You know how some people can close their eyes and see things? He can do that all the time." Five years ago, after Kirk Kerkorian's MGM Grand bought Wynn's Mirage Resorts for $6.4 billion, Wynn spent 11/2 months with a sketchbook, walking around the 87 hectares he acquired at more than $1 million each when he bought the Desert Inn (which he had torn down). He also hired real estate mogul Irwin Molasky...
...question, Kerkorian still gets a kick out of high-stakes deals. In 2000 his MGM Grand bought Steve Wynn's Mirage Resorts for $6.4 billion, and last June Kerkorian snapped up the Mandalay Resort Group for $4.8 billion, giving him control of 11 hotel-casinos on the Strip and more than half the gambling action. Last year Kerkorian sold his stake in the MGM movie studio for $5 billion to a consortium led by Sony. In fact, Kerkorian's dalliance with MGM over the years reads like a sordid back-lot love story. He first bought shares in the studio...
...Kerkorian's childhood, rough and rootless, may have instilled in him that lifelong drive to get ahead. Born to Armenian immigrant farmers in Fresno, Calif., he moved at least 20 times as a kid, his parents often struggling with the rent. In junior high, he was expelled for fighting and truancy. After dropping out, he learned to box ("Rifle Right," they called him), and during World War II he shuttled planes across the Atlantic for Britain's Royal Air Force. Back in California, he bought and sold refurbished aircraft and started an air service ferrying gamblers from Los Angeles...
...headline-grabbing skill as a dealmaker, Kerkorian is often described as a recluse. Vegas real estate tycoon Irwin Molasky, an old friend, says it's more that Kerkorian tends to be quiet and unassuming. He hasn't been entirely able to shield himself from the tabloids, however. In 2002 he was involved in a tawdry paternity case after his third wife, tennis pro Lisa Bonder, to whom he had been married for a month, admitted faking DNA tests to prove he was the father of her child. Still, when he attends boxing matches, Kerkorian sits up in the cheap seats...