Kerry Packer no more

Australia’s richest man Kerry Packer, a pugnacious media mogul with a passion for sport and gambling, died overnight in Sydney, his television network said Tuesday. He was 68.

Channel Nine gave no cause of death but Packer had been plagued by ill health for more than a decade, cheating death in 1990 when his heart stopped for several minutes while playing polo.

“He died peacefully at home with his family at his bedside,” the television station said.

Packer built a multi-billion-dollar broadcast and publishing empire, as well as transforming the way international cricket is played to make it more television-friendly for the media age.

His success in business was matched by a devil-may-care attitude, whether mocking the mistakes of competitors or shrugging off reports of his own heavy losses in casinos from Las Vegas to London.

“He was a man who you could truly say was larger than life,” said business rival and fellow tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard also paid tribute to the mogul, who was ranked by Forbes magazine this year as the 94th richest man in the world with a fortune of some 6.9 billion (5.2 billion US) dollars.

“He was a great Australian. He was a larger-than-life character, and in so many ways he left his mark on the Australian community over a very long career in business,” Howard told reporters.

Born on December 17, 1937, Packer inherited the family business, Publishing and Broadcas-ting Ltd (PBL), from his father Frank, a legendary newspaperman who was so penny-cons-cious that he sometimes refused to buy chairs — or notebooks — for his reporters.

Packer was not the type to back down from a challenge and when he was refused the broadcast rights to Australian Test cricket in 1977, he launched his own World Series Cricket, poaching some of the game’s greatest stars.

It popularised the one-day version of the game although critics dismissed the colourful uniforms as “pyjamas” and an insult to tradition.

But he was hailed after his death as the greatest Australian contributor to the game since Donald Bradman.

“He knew that the players were being in a sense financially downtrodden and it was his job to put it right, and put it right he did,” said former Australia captain Richie Benaud, now Channel Nine’s voice of cricket.

“He was absolutely brilliant…he’ll be much missed.”

Packer once called himself “academically stupid” but there was no doubting his skill in the boardroom, where his jaw-dropping deals were greeted with envy and amazement.

He had recently steered PBL into another of his passions — gambling — by taking control of Australia’s largest casino and developing new gaming complexes in Macau with businessman Stanley Ho.

His greatest coup came when he sold Channel Nine to Perth businessman Alan Bond for just over a billion dollars (750 million US) in 1987, then bought it back at a fifth of the price three years later.

“You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime,” Packer said. “And I’ve had mine.”

The low point of his public life came in the early 1980s, when an official inquiry was investigating the Australian drugs trade.

Packer was named as a drugs kingpin known as “the Goanna” but vehemently denied the allegations and was formally cleared of any wrongdoing in 1987, although the episode reinforced his determination to avoid the spotlight.

He officially handed over the reins of PBL to his son James in 1998 but was still involved in the day-to-day running of the operation.

Packer’s health had deteriorated in recent years.

He underwent a kidney transplant in November 2000, receiving an organ donated by his helicopter pilot and friend Nick “Biggles” Ross, and in 2003 needed emergency surgery to clear blocked arteries.

In 1990 he nearly died while playing polo, but managed to survive even though his heart stopped beating for around seven minutes.

Afterwards he reportedly boasted: “I’ve been to the other side. And let me tell you son, there’s … nothing there.” Within a week he was back on the polo field.

Packer is survived by James, wife Ros and daughter Gretel.

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