#3 – Kirk Kerkorian
Net Worth: $5.3 billion -50%
Last Year: $10.6 billion
Age: 91
Residence: Beverly Hills
Source of Wealth: Investments
The Money:
Few have fallen further than majority owner of MGM Mirage, who has seen value of his MGM holdings drop 50 percent on concerns over mounting debt and declining tourism. Bad bet on Ford Motor Co. shares compounded damage.
The Buzz:
Kirk Kerkorian made his fortune by betting big on casinos, but last year his luck nearly ran out.
About $6 billion of Kerkorian? net worth evaporated when stock in his gaming and resort corporation MGM Mirage plunged. The reason: The bust hit Las Vegas with a vengeance, scaring gamblers and tourists alike ?the lifeblood of MGM, which owns half the hotel rooms on the Strip.
An ill-timed gamble Kerkorian took on Ford Motor Co. didn? help. He bought a small stake in the auto giant last summer only to see the American auto industry drive off a cliff. The toll from that wager: More than $700 million was lost.
If only he had waited.
These days Ford is the healthiest of the domestic auto makers and its stock just might be ready for a turnaround. Which raises the question, has Kerkorian lost his Midas touch? Have his 91 years finally caught up with him?
There are hints the intrepid Armenian American, who during World War II ferried fighters across the Atlantic, can no longer fly solo.
Last summer, he made a rare public appearance to testify about his knowledge of the wiretapping of his ex-wife by now-imprisoned private sleuth Anthony Pellicano. (Kerkorian and his former spouse were locked in a paternity battle at the time.) Wearing a navy sports jacket and gray slacks, he looked sharp and walked into the courthouse unaided. But when asked to look over documents from his child support case he said to defense attorney Patricia Glaser: ?atty, you know my eyes aren? that good.?p>So does Kerkorian still have what it takes to direct MGM through the downturn or should he just cash in and turn over the reins?
The company is saddled with $14 billion in debt and its would-be crown jewel, an $8.6 billion resort and casino complex dubbed Las Vegas City Center, was in danger of being shut down for lack of financing. If that weren? enough, Kerkorian finds his empire besieged by activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns a sizable chunk of MGM? debt and wants the company to restructure ?in bankruptcy court.
Of course, 2008 wasn? the first year that Kerkorian lost money, and the wily investor is still rolling the dice.
He? boldly upped his Tracinda Corp. investment firm? stake in oil and gas company Delta Petroleum. MGM also is selling off some of its assets ?reasure Island Hotel & Casino went for $775 million ?to raise cash and stave off bankruptcy. Last month, MGM and partner Dubai World struck an agreement to finance the rest of the City Center project.
MGM now says it? on track to open Vegas?biggest-ever project at the end of the year, even though some believe it could be a decade or more before the city? tourism returns to the levels reached during the boom.
?? a gambler at heart,?Kerkorian said in 2005. ?hat? my life.?p>He? still gambling, but this time it? to save his empire.
