As one of the most talked-about figures, John Kluge has built a significant fortune. In this article, we dive deep into the assets and career highlights.
What is John Kluge's Net Worth?
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Metromedia made its largest broadcasting purchase in 1982 when it acquired the Boston, Massachusetts station WCVB-TV for $220 million. A few years later, Kluge announced the sale of Metromedia's television stations, as well as other assets, toRupert Murdoch'sNews Corporation and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. He completed the deal in 1986 for around $4 billion. The stations he sold would become the core of the Fox Broadcasting Company, which debuted later in the year.
John Kluge was a German-American entrepreneur and media mogul who had a net worth of $6.5 billion at the time of his death in 2010.
In the mid-1950s, Kluge purchased stock in the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, which was the successor of the DuMont Television Network. He went on to become the company's chairman and largest stockholder by 1958, having acquired the majority of his shares from founder Allen B. DuMont for around $6 million. Among the company's earliest acquisitions were a radio station in Cleveland, Ohio and television stations in Stockton, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Peoria and Decatur, Illinois. In 1961, the company was renamed Metromedia. Throughout the rest of the decade, Kluge expanded the company into Los Angeles, purchased the live entertainment groups the Ice Capades and the Harlem Globetrotters, and launched the Metromedia Records label. The company also established a television production and distribution arm, Metromedia Producers Corporation, through which it produced and syndicated various programs.
John Kluge was the founder, chairman, and CEO of Metromedia, which owned numerous radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986. Later, through the Metromedia Company, he created the Metromedia Restaurant Group, a casual dining company that operated and franchised over 800 restaurants. In 1986, Kluge sold the Metromedia television stations to the 20th Century Fox film studio for $4 billion. Those stations would later form the core of what would become the Fox television network. The sale made John Kluge therichest man in America.
Kluge was also significantly involved in philanthropy, having made major donations to Columbia University, the University of Virginia, and the Library of Congress, establishing the John W. Kluge Center at the lattermost institution in 2000.
John Kluge was born on September 21, 1914 in Chemnitz, Germany into a Presbyterian family. In 1922, he immigrated to the United States. There, Kluge attended Wayne State University for two years before completing his higher education at Columbia University. He graduated in 1937 with his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.
In 1987, Kluge was listed byForbes as the richest man in the United States. He went on to create the Metromedia Company, in which he was a partner with fellow media magnate Stuart Subotnick. Through that venture, Kluge was involved in television and radio networks in Eastern Europe, China, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Also part of the Metromedia Company was the Metromedia Restaurant Group, which operated and franchised over 800 restaurants, including those under the names Steak and Ale, Bennigan's, and Ponderosa.
Ultimately, John Kluge's financial journey is a testament to their success.
Disclaimer: All net worth figures are estimates based on public data.
