Kirk And Lee: Septuagenarians At The Gate
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Their friendship began five years ago at a Florida racetrack. Over lunch arranged by investment bankers, the two dickered over private planes and a movie studio. Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian couldn't persuade then-Chairman Lee A. Iacocca to sell him Chrysler Corp.'s Gulfstream Aerospace Technologies unit. And Iacocca wouldn't bite at Kerkorian's offer to sell a small stake in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
No deal--then. But something clicked between Kerkorian, the son of an Armenian fruit farmer, and Iacocca, the offspring of an Italian immigrant. "They talked the same language," recalls Alex Yemenidjian, a top executive at Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. "And Kirk trusts his instincts a great deal."