CNN founder Ted Turner died on Wednesday at 87 years of age, the network informed citing a press release from Turner Enterprises.
Turner, who had long been away from the media business after selling his empire to Time Warner in 1996, had been battling Lewy Body Dementia, according to the Associated Press.
Turner also owned professional team sports in Atlanta and raced yachts professionally. However, he was largely known for creating CNN in 1980, marking the first time there was a 24.hour all-news television network.
"I was going to have to hit hard and move incredibly fast and that's what we did — move so fast that the (broadcast) networks wouldn't have the time to respond, because they should have done this, not me," Turner said in 2016, claiming that it was his frustration with other networks what led him to make the decision.
Turner also got to own 2 million acres of land, including the country's largest bison herd. He got to be Nebraska's largest private landholder.
In the realm of sports, he at one point owned professional baseball, basketball and hockey teams in Atlanta, including the Atlanta Braves, which significantly increased their level during the 1990s.
Turner had a net worth of $2.5 billion in 2023 after seeing it drop from almost $10 billion in the 2000s. In his autobiography, "Call Me Ted," he said that "on average, my net worth dropped by about $67 million 'per week,' or nearly $10 million "per day, every day, for two and a half years."
However, he brushed it off in posterior remarks. "See, my life is more an adventure than a quest to make money. Adventure is going out and doing something for the pure hell of it," he said.
