Ted Turner Net Worth 2024: Muscled Out Of Time Warner, Left With $3 Billion

Ted Turner is a television producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist as well as the man behind Cable News Network (CNN), a 24-hour cable news channel.

He is also a pioneer of the cable television superstation concept as the founder of TBS, his other major brand.

As of 2024, Ted Turner’s net worth is estimated at over $3 billion.

The famous American entrepreneur has made the bulk of his fortune from these two ventures, but he has also dabbled in various other industries.

Outside the media empire, he owns a food chain and has an incredible amount of real estate assets in his portfolio.

Keep reading to learn more about his story.

5 Fun Facts about Ted Turner

1. Turner was expelled from Brown University for having a female student in his dormitory.
2. He founded CNN, the first 24-hour news channel.
3. Turner once owned the Atlanta Braves and won the 1995 World Series.
4. He is the second-largest private landowner in North America.
5. Turner established the United Nations Foundation with a $1 billion donation.

Ted Turner’s Net Worth: Full Breakdown

Despite his immense success, Ted Turner has remained relatively low-key compared to other billionaires. His substantial investments in land and varied business ventures have diversified his wealth beyond the media empire he built.

Our thorough research has enabled us to estimate Ted Turner’s current net worth, highlighting his major assets and income sources. Here is a detailed breakdown of his main earnings and holdings.

Ted Turner Net Worth: Early Life, Education, and Family

Robert Edward Turner III was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 19, 1938, to Florence and Robert Edward Turner II.

He was raised in a wealthy family – his father was a billboard magnate. At the age of nine, Ted Turner moved to Savannah, Georgia, with his family, where he attended The McCallie School, a private preparatory school for boys in Chattanooga.

After his high school graduation, Turner attended Brown University, where he captained the sailing team and was the vice president of the Brown Debating Union, as well as a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

In the beginning, he chose classics as his major but later switched to economics.

Despite his success at school, Turner didn’t graduate from Brown University. He was expelled for having a female student in his dormitory close to graduation.

In 1989, Brown University awarded him an honorary Bachelor’s degree when he gave the keynote address for the second annual conference of the National Association of College Broadcasters.

After his expulsion, Turner decided to join the United States Coast Guard Reserve.

Ted Turner’s Family

Turner has been married three times.

He married his first wife, Judy Nye, in 1960. In 1965, he married Jane Shirley Smith. He and Jane Shirley Smith divorced after 22 years and, in 1991, he married the actress Jane Fonda.

He has five children from these marriages. Turner’s children are Laura, Robert, Jennie, Beau, and Rhett Turner.

Turner’s son, Robert Edward Turner IV, announced in 2013 that he intended to run in the South Carolina Republican Primary for the open seat in Congress vacated by Tim Scott, who had been appointed to the US Senate.

He eventually received 7.90% of the vote in the South Carolina Republican Primary, coming in fourth.

While the details of his first two divorces haven’t been disclosed to the public, Turner’s divorce settlement with the actress Jane Fonda reportedly cost him over $100 million in liquid assets, including company stock.

Fonda also received several real estate properties, including a 2,500-acre ranch, as part of the settlement.

Personal Health Concerns

In a 2018 CBS interview, Ted Turner revealed that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia.

It’s a condition that affects around 1.4 million Americans, and it leaves Turner forgetful and exhausted, with symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

It is said that he has good and bad days, and his condition isn’t fatal.

Ted Turner Net Worth: How the Expelled Student Became a Business Mogul

After leaving Brown University without a degree and his time at the US Coast Guard Reserve, Turner decided to take over his father’s business in Macon, Georgia.

Fast forward a few years, and he was already a successful leader, founding his own businesses and adding millions to his net worth.

Let’s see how his career progressed over the years.

Turner Outdoor Advertising

In the early 1960s, Turner became the general manager of a branch of his father’s company, Turner Outdoor Advertising.

In 1963, his father died of suicide, so Turner became chief executive and president of the business. He was 24 years old, but his leadership skills were evident right away, turning the successful firm into a global enterprise.

When Turner became the company’s president, the business was worth around $1 million. He led the company to major profits and success over the years, which allowed him to purchase several southern radio stations.

Acquisitions and Growth of Turner Advertising

In 1969, Ted Turner sold the existing radio stations that were part of the business and used the money to buy a struggling TV station in Atlanta called the UHF Channel 17 WJRJ, now named WPCH.

At the time, many considered this a bad move, considering that UHF stations only succeeded in markets that didn’t have a VHF station – a difference in the frequencies the channels broadcast over.

However, Turner had the idea that UHF stations would become profitable in different markets shortly and proceeded with the purchase. He immediately changed the call sign to WTCG, referring to Watch This Channel Grow or Turner Communications Group.

At the time, WTCG ran second-hand programming, which Turner picked up. This included shows like I Love Lucy, Star Trek, Bugs Bunny, and Gilligan’s Island. He also kept on the humorist Bill Tush who read the news at 3 am, and even delivered the news once with a German Shepherd, his co-anchor Rex.

The Birth of Turner Broadcasting System

WPCH wasn’t the only acquisition he made as the company president. The acquisition of Atlanta UHF station in 1970 was the beginning of the Turner Broadcasting System.

In 1972, WTCG bought the rights to telecast Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves games.

Fast forward to 1976, Turner bought both teams – Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks – using his superstation to broadcast their games to the majority of US households.

That same year, Ted Turner started using satellites to transmit content through WTCG to local cable television providers across the US and simultaneously started broadcasting cartoons, sitcom reruns, old movies, and sports to subscribers.

Turner would go on to acquire yet another channel, the UHF Channel 36 WRET, now known as WCNC, and run it in a format similar to WTCG.

In 1978, Ted Turner signed a deal with a radio station at MIT called Technology Broadcasting System (now WMBR) to buy the rights to the call sign for $50,000.

This acquisition enabled him to adopt the initials TBS for his burgeoning super-station.

Consequently, he rebranded Turner Communications Group as Turner Broadcasting System and changed WTCG’s name to WTBS.

Fast forward to 1986, Ted Turner founded the charitable Goodwill Games to ease tensions between communist and capitalist countries.

That same year, Ted Turner created Turner Entertainment to oversee the TV properties and films he owned. He previously acquired MGM with its 2,200 film library and then syndicated the movies on his TV stations.

He spent $1.5 billion on this acquisition, renaming it MGM Entertainment Company, Inc.

However, while he kept the library of MGM, he had to sell the company back to Kerkorian a few years later.

In 1988, Ted Turner acquired Jim Crockett Promotions and renamed it World Championship Wrestling (WCW), making it the main competitor to the World Wrestling Federation by Vince McMahon. In 2001, WCW was sold to the WWF under AOL Time Warner.

However, while he kept the library of MGM, he had to sell the company back to Kerkorian a few years later.

In 1988, Ted Turner acquired Jim Crockett Promotions and renamed it World Championship Wrestling (WCW), making it the main competitor to the World Wrestling Federation by Vince McMahon.

In 2001, WCW was sold to the WWF under AOL Time Warner.

In the same year, he introduced Turner Network Television or TNT with the first broadcast being Gone With the Wind. TNT initially showed older movies but later started adding newer reruns.

In 1994, Turner created Turner Classic Movies, which aired the pre-1986 MGM library of films.

The Founding of CNN

In 1978, Ted Turner contacted Reese Schonfeld, a top media executive, sharing his plans to create a 24-hour news channel.

The two agreed that this could be done using an all-electronic newsroom and satellites for the transmissions, starting with a staff of 300 people and an investment of around $15 to $20 million.

The business would cost several million dollars per month just to operate.

Even though Turner was worth millions of dollars at this point, he had to sell his North Carolina station, WRET, to gather enough funds for the transaction.

He decided to establish the company’s headquarters in Atlanta, appointing Schonfeld as the first president and chief executive of Cable News Network or CNN. CNN was founded under the Turner Broadcasting System in 1980.

Ted Turner would quickly prove to be a pioneer in the media industry by launching the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage.

In 1982, Turner replaced Schonfeld in the CEO and president role after their dispute over Schonfeld’s firing of an executive employee at the company. He was succeeded as president by Burt Reinhardt, CNN’s executive vice president.

The Time Warner Merger

On October 10, 1996, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. merged with Time Warner Inc., with Turner as vice chairman and head of the new cable networks division. The business mogul sold his Turner brand to Time Warner for $7.3 billion in stock.

Later on, Turner would leave the position as head of cable networks by Gerald Levin to take the position of Vice Chairman of Time Warner.

In 2001, Time Warner was acquired by America Online, becoming AOL Time Warner.

However, the dot-com bubble burst soon after, seriously damaging the profitability of the new AOL decision, marking a serious drop in the stock price and major changes in the company’s executive positions.

The company subsequently dropped AOL from the name in October 2003.

In 2003, Turner resigned as the vice chairman of the company, and three years later, he also resigned from Time Warner’s board of directors.

By 2009, AOL was removed from the Time Warner conglomerate and made a separate company. In June 2014, Rupert Murdoch made a bid of $80 billion for the business through his company, 21st Century Fox, but Time Warner rejected the offer.

Turner’s Stake in Time Warner

At one point, Ted Turner was the biggest individual shareholder at Time Warner. When the stock collapsed after the merger in 2001, he lost as much as $7 billion, which made for the bulk of the value of his stock at the time of the sale ($7.3 billion).

In 2003, the billionaire sold 50 million shares in the company and donated 10 million more. He earned $784.2 million from this sale, slicing his holding to 45 million shares or about 1% of the business.

In 2007, a decade after the major sale of CNN and other cable networks, he reportedly had 31.3 million shares, but the stock lost more than half its value in the following three years.

At one point, Ted Turner revealed that he had sold all of his Time Warner stock, though it hasn’t been disclosed how much exactly he earned from the sale.

Turner said in 2012 that his biggest regret in business was relinquishing control of CNN in the Time Warner merger. In a CBS interview, he said,

I didn’t think I was selling it, I got maneuvered out

He went on to explain, “At Time Warner, I had ten percent of the stock after the merger. But when we merged with AOL, I was diluted down to three percent.”

Awards and Accolades

Over the years, Ted Turner has won many awards and honorable mentions for his success in cable television, the film industry, sports team management, and other ventures.

Let’s take a look at the biggest awards he has won over the years:

• 1984: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
• 1989: Paul White Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association
• 1991: Inducted into the Television Hall of Fame
• 1995: Commissioner’s Trophy given to the Atlanta Braves, which he owned at the time, for winning the 1995 World Series
• 1996: Atlanta Braves home ballpark was named Turner Field (1996-2016)
• 1997: Won Peabody Award
• 2000: Won Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Communication
• 2004: Given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• 2014 and 2015: Emmy Awards for Lifetime Achievement in Sports/News & Documentary

Philanthropy

For many years, Ted Turner has been advocating for clean water. This prompted him to establish the Turner Foundation to address methods to curb population growth, investing $125 million of his personal net worth into the foundation.

In 2009, Ted Turner had a meeting with other business moguls like Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet, David Rockefeller, and Bill Gates to address societal and environmental issues.

The group of elite billionaire philanthropists was titled The Good Club.

“It is really unprecedented. It is the first time a group of donors of this level of wealth has met like that behind closed doors in what is, in essence, a billionaires’ club,” said Ian Wilhelm, a writer at the Chronicle of Philanthropy magazine.

As a philanthropist, Ted Turner has donated $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation. The United Nations Foundation is a public charity created to broaden the US’ support for the UN. For years, Turner was the chairman of the foundation’s board of directors.

In 2001, Ted Turner co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative with US Senator Sam Nunn.

Also known as NTI, the initiative is a non-partisan organization dedicated to preventing the proliferation of chemical and nuclear weapons, as well as to reducing global reliance on said weapons.

He is currently the co-chairman of NTI’s board of directors.

Ted Turner’s many charitable endeavors through the Turner Foundation have led him to receive several awards for philanthropy including:

• Audubon medal from the National Audubon Society in 1991
• Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism in 2001
• Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Philanthropy

In 2010, Ted Turner joined The Giving Pledge, created by Warren Buffet, vowing to donate the majority of his wealth to charity in his lifetime. Other signees of the pledge include Netflix founder Reed Hastings, Google billionaire, Larry Page, and investor Ray Dalio.

Ted Turner Net Worth: Other Investments, Assets, and Business Ventures

Ted Turner’s career has been incredibly diverse, extending to different industries. Let’s take a look at his other ventures and investments over the years.

Sailing Career

Back when Ted Turner was 26 years old, he was a professional sailor, entering sailing competitions at the Savannah Yacht Club. He also competed in the Olympic trials in 1964.

In 1974, Turner made his first attempt to win the America’s Cup. In 1977, he was chosen to lead the America’s Cup defense as skipper on the yacht Courageous and also appeared on the Sports Illustrated cover.

In September 1977, Turner defended the America’s Cup, defeating Australia 4-0. He was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011 and the America’s Cup Hall of Fame in 1993.

Other Ventures

In 1993, Turner co-founded the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation (MIBC) with the Russian journalist Eduard Sagalajev. The corporation founded the Russian TV-6 channel and operated the sixth frequency on Russian television.

The company was acquired by the Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky and other businesspeople and, in 2007, when the license for TV06 expired, no one applied for renewal.

We don’t know how much money Turner made from the deal but it’s likely a drop in the bucket in comparison to the rest of his net worth.

Turner is also the co-founder of Ted’s Montana Grill, a restaurant chain that has expanded to over 45 restaurants across 16 states. The first Ted’s Montana Grill was opened in 2010 in Columbus, Ohio, as a shared venture between Ted Turner and George McKerrow Jr.

In 1976, Ted Turner founded Turner Enterprises Inc., an American company that manages his land holdings, investments, and business interests.

Land Ownership and Real Estate

Ted Turner’s net worth includes a fortune in land and real estate assets. He manages his enormous portfolio of land assets through Turner Enterprises.

He reportedly owns between 15 and 19 ranches (and at least 6-10 other properties) in the US and Argentina, totaling 1,910,585 acres, making him the second largest private landowner in North America.

His biggest ranch is the largest privately owned land in the United States, the Vermejo Park in New Mexico.

Through Turner Enterprises, he owns ranches in Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and South Carolina.

The value of Ted Turner’s ownership of land and real estate assets remains undisclosed to the public, but judging by how much he owns, it’s most likely in the billions.

Authorship

In 2008, Ted Turner published an autobiography titled Call Me Ted, disclosing the details of his life and career to the public.

What Can We Learn from Ted Turner’s Story?

Ted Turner’s journey from an expelled student to a media mogul offers several key lessons about resilience, innovation, and diversification.

His story exemplifies the impact of pioneering in the cable industry, especially with the founding of CNN, the first 24-hour news media network, which transformed how the world consumes news.

Turner’s ability to foresee the potential of cable television and his strategic moves in the cable industry reflect his visionary thinking.

He turned a struggling UHF station into a powerhouse, a superstation, and then built a media empire that included CNN and TBS. His diverse ventures show the importance of embracing new technologies, as well as taking risks to pioneer new markets.

His regret for how he lost control of his empire also gives us a lesson in maintain a controlling stake in the businesses you care about and to be aware of wider business politics.

Moreover, Turner’s diversification into various industries, such as his restaurant chain Ted’s Montana Grill, and his vast real estate and land ownership, highlights the importance of not putting all one’s eggs in one basket.

This diversification helped maintain his wealth even in the dramatically changing media landscape.

Turner’s life also teaches us the value of philanthropy and giving back.

His substantial donations and the establishment of the Turner Foundation and the United Nations Foundation demonstrate how business success can be leveraged to make a positive impact on society.