J. Michael Cline, founding investor and former president of online ticketing service Fandango, died Tuesday after falling from the window of a high-rise hotel in midtown Manhattan.
O New York Post Office received the news first. The NYPD confirmed to Deadline that a man with that name and age, 64, fell from the Kimberly Hotel at 145 East 50th. Reports say he died by suicide and left a note.
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Cline was managing partner at Accretive, which finances startup companies, and executive chairman of Justapose, which has a similar mission but specializes in building consumer-focused companies, according to social media and company websites.
Before launching Accretive, Cline was a founding investor in Fandango in 2000 as a partner at General Atlantic. The ticketing service’s first employees Deadline spoke to today called him absolutely instrumental in getting the new company off the ground. Notably, he negotiated deals with movie theater chains, including Regal and Cinemark, neither of which were yet using online listings, to join the site. He wanted Fandango to compete with the 800-pound gorilla of the day, Moviefone, the ubiquitous phone call listing service founded in 1989.
A former colleague said Cline was “creative and made sure exhibitors had enough opportunities for it to make sense for them.” He called Cline generous and philanthropic, donating significant sums to environmental causes such as the World Wildlife Fund.
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Other companies he founded include R1 RCM, Accolade, Insureon, Everspring and Accumen.
Cline and others profited from Fandango in 2007, selling a majority stake to NBCUniversal, which still owns it. Warner Bros. Discovery is a minority investor.
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
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