CNN founder Ted Turner dies

Ted Turner, founder of the CNN news network, died today, the media outlet reported, citing a statement from Turner Enterprises.

He was 87 years old, and as Reuters reports, the cause of death has not been announced.

Turner revealed in September 2018 that he suffers from Lewy body dementia, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

He became a billionaire after taking over his father's billboard business, buying a television station in 1970 and building it into a huge and pioneering television group.

Turner became one of the most powerful figures in American media and entertainment, and his networks specialized in news, sports, reruns, and old movies.

He added the MGM/UA film studio to his portfolio, according to Reuters, before merging his Turner Broadcasting System with Time Warner in 1996.

He ran the new company's cable network and was its largest shareholder.

Turner also became one of the world's leading environmentalists, one of the largest landowners in the US, and a major philanthropist, donating a billion dollars to the United Nations.

In the 1970s, he owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks NBA team.

Forbes estimates his fortune at $2,8 billion.

Robert Edward Turner III was born in Cincinnati on November 19, 1938, and moved with his family to the southern United States when he was nine. He attended military schools where he became a champion debater and sailing champion.

He enrolled at Brown University in Rhode Island and never graduated.

He joined his family's advertising company in Savannah, Georgia, selling billboard space. At the age of 24, he remained at the helm of the company after his father committed suicide.

The business was sold to pay off debts, but Turner, after a family dispute in which he won, repurchased the company and made it successful. In 1970, against the advice of associates, he bought a struggling UHF television station in Atlanta, now WTBS, for $2,5 million.

In 1980, he launched CNN in Atlanta, claiming it would be an alternative to the “cheap” reporting of the major networks CBS, NBC and ABC.

During Donald Trump's tumultuous first term in 2018, he said he rarely watched the network he founded, claiming it was too focused on politics.

A "television visionary," Turner was named Time magazine's Person of the Year in 1991 for "influencing the course of events and turning viewers in 150 countries into direct witnesses to history."

Time Warner bought his Turner Broadcasting System for $7,5 billion in 1996, creating the world's largest communications company at the time, with HBO, Warner Bros. film studio, Time magazine, CNN, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies, according to Reuters.

In 2001, Time Warner merged with Internet company AOL in a $99 billion deal that Turner supported. However, during the reorganization, he lost control of the cable networks he had created, and then billions of dollars as the company's stock fell. In 2003, he stepped down as vice chairman, and three years later, he stepped down from Time Warner's board of directors.

Struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide were a frequent topic of his conversations, according to his biographer.

Turner was married and divorced three times and had five children. His third marriage, to Jane Fonda, lasted ten years and ended in 2001.