SYDNEY: Media moghul, sports enthusiast and Australia's richest man Kerry Packer died in his sleep at his Sydney home Monday night, according to his family. He was 68.
Packer, listed by Forbes magazine this year as the 94th richest man in the world with a fortune of $5 billion, died peacefully, the statement released through his Channel Nine Network television channel said. "He died peacefully at home with his family at his bedside."
The cause of his death was not disclosed. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Roslyn, his son James and daughter Gretel.
Packer had entrusted most of the day-to-day running of his business, which included Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd., the company that runs Channel Nine Network television channel, brings out several high-profile magazines and maintains interests in Australian casinos, to James. A heart attack he had in 1990 while playing polo and the subsequent bypass surgery had prompted him to do this. He also had a kidney transplant in 2000, receiving it from his long time helicopter pilot and friend Nick Ross. His other kidney was transplanted earlier in the 1980s.
Born in Sydney on 17 December 1937 and educated at one of the city's top private boarding schools, Packer began his career when 19 in the printing room of his media tycoon father Sir Frank Packer's Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney. He later inherited the publishing business.
While media and publishing made him popular in Australia, it was his love of sports, especially cricket, that put him on a global pedestal. He went against tradition and established the limited overs cricket game and popularised it through his channel. The format did not find favour with the traditionalists, but it helped to revive the game. He was also responsible for the controversial decision to bring South Africa, banned from cricket for the country's apartheid, back into the cricket world. It was the limited overs game that paved way for the ODIs in cricket now.
Besides running his publishing company and managing the casinos, Packer had investments in real estate and he is one of Australia's largest landowners and cattle barons. His properties in the country are said to have an area bigger than Belgium.
Australia's prime minister John Howard described him as a great Australian and larger than life character. "Despite his wealth and his business power he had a great capacity to talk the language of the common man and to understand what that person thought. Kerry was a forceful bloke. That’s what Australians liked about him."
James Packer, 38, is set to inherit the legacy -- the huge media and gambling empire. He will be the fourth generation of Packers to run the dynastical business. After his father was almost incapacitated, James was holding greater responsibilities, becoming the publishing company's managing director in 1996, and then executive chairman in 1998.
He had played key roles in setting up the joint venture with British online betting agency Betfair and developing new gaming complexes in Macau with businessman Stanley Ho.
Posted
on : Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:05 GMT | General News
By : Anne Philips
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