At Long Last, He's Citizen Ted

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Every media mogul is inevitably compared to Charles Foster Kane Charles Foster Kane . But R.E. Ted Turner R.E. Ted Turner , who quit the board of AOL Time Warner yesterday, actually owned the movie Citizen Kane--and threatened to colorize it, thus incurring the wrath of his fellow film lovers.


115316 Ted Turner AOL Time Warner But if Turner still had plenty of money, he didn't have a job--or at least not much of one. "I confess I am profoundly surprised," said Porter Bibb Porter Bibb , Turner's biographer, last night. "I think he is a very angry man. He is miffed beyond words at having been marginalized. He is a powerful leader with nothing to lead anymore."

As other top executives, most recently Chairman Steve Case Steve Case , quit their roles, Turner, who was vice chairman, expected to be brought back into something of a managerial role, Bibb says, citing sources close to Turner. Certainly, he expected to be named at least interim chairman, a position he wanted badly. But he wasn't asked-- instead, current Chief Executive Richard Parsons Richard Parsons was given the title--despite the fact that Turner owns more AOL stock than the rest of the board combined. (Steve Case owns 10.8 million shares; former CEO Gerald Levin Gerald Levin owns 2.7 million, according to the company's most recent proxy statement.)

Turner, 64, who says he will devote himself to his many charitable projects, is without a corporate position for the first time since 1963 when he became president and chief operating officer of Turner Advertising . Like Howard Hughes Howard Hughes , the equally eccentric billionaire, playboy and movie mogul, Turner inherited a substantial company from his father in his early 20s. In Turner's case, his father committed suicide. He turned the billboard company into a media powerhouse, renaming it Turner Broadcastin g. (In the typical fashion of corporate profiles, Turner's official AOL Time Warner biography omits the inheritance part, to say nothing of the suicide part, though both facts are well known.)

In 1970, Turner entered the television business by buying an Atlanta independent UHF television station, which became the foundation of his empire. He used satellite hookups to originate the "superstation" and used it to broadcast the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks, which he also bought. In 1980 he started CNN , the first worldwide 24-hour news network.


Turner actually had experience in managing media properties and cable television networks; he created synergies--something that AOL Time Warner is supposed to do. Along the way he found time to win the America's Cup, actually skippering his yacht Courageous, to found the Goodwill Games (which tottered once the ending of the Cold War robbed them of their purpose) and to get married--and divorced--three times, most famously to Jane Fonda Jane Fonda .

In 1991, well before he sold his company to Time Warner, he was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year.





Ted Turner once said, "If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect." Turner was kidding about being perfect, but his being humbled is no joke.