Key Background
MGM Resorts owns roughly 40% of the Las Vegas Strip, including the Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, ARIA Resort and Casino Park MGM, as well as casinos in several states and in China. The company’s roots (and name) are tied to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the famous Hollywood studio behind films like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With the Wind.” Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who was developing 80 acres he’d bought on the Las Vegas strip at the time, bought the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio in 1969 and used its name to open the original MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, the largest hotel in the world at the time it was finished. Kerkorian used the MGM brand name and prestige to help market his Vegas hotels and casinos, and while he ultimately sold off many of the studio’s assets, he kept the lion logo and MGM branding. The casino operation was launched in 1986, and MGM Resorts descended from that. MGM debuted its mobile sports betting arm, BetMGM, in 2021 to compete with early online companies FanDuel and DraftKings, and faces new competitions from rapidly growing prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, have introduced new competition.
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Big Number
$42.2 billion. That’s the total of MGM Resorts’ assets as the largest casino company in the world.
Forbes Valuation
Diller, now 84 and still senior executive and chairman of the internet and media conglomerate he founded in 1995, is worth an estimated $5.2 billion as of Monday. Before starting IAC, Diller worked at ABC, Paramount and Fox where he pioneered the made-for-TV movie and oversaw launches of hit shows including “Cheers” and “The Simpsons.” He moved to QVC, the home shopping network, before launching IAC and starting a decades-long career of buying and selling web-based companies including Ticketmaster, Expedia, Angi, Match.com and Care.com. The New Yorker once described IAC as “a Berkshire Hathaway of Internet companies.” Diller is married to designer Diane Von Furstenberg and owns an estimated one third of her fashion company.
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Tangent
Diller’s profile rose in popular culture last year after he released his memoir, “Who Knew,” described by fellow billionaire Bill Gates as “raw and honest in a way most business memoirs usually aren’t.” The book, which chronicled his rise in business and offered advice to budding entrepreneurs, made headlines after Diller used it to publicly come out as gay and say his sexuality did not conflict with his marriage. In an interview after the book’s release, Diller said the stir over his sexuality was “over the top,” adding: “If I have been in a closet, it has been the most brightly lit closet with a glass door that you have ever seen.”
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Further Reading
ForbesBook Review: Barry Diller’s Excellent And Enlightening “Who Knew”By John TamnyForbesBillionaires Bailing On Biden: Barry Diller, Christy Walton, Reed Hastings Urge Biden To Drop OutBy Brian BushardForbesBillionaire Barry Diller In Potential Takeover Talks With Paramount Following Skydance’s Failed Bid, Report SaysBy Antonio Pequeño IV