Carl H. Lindner Jr., Founder of American Financial, Dies at 92

Mr. Lindner, who never finished high school, was chairman of American Financial, a Cincinnati-based financial holding company that had more than $17 billion in assets. In 2009, Forbes magazine estimated his personal wealth at $1.75 billion.

He also made a name for himself by becoming one of Mr. Milken’s earliest junk-bond players. But he showed his investment savvy by correctly predicting a decline in the junk-bond market in the late 1980s.

Mr. Lindner ruled over a maze of corporations with nearly 70,000 employees worldwide. American Financial owned, or held substantial investments in, Chiquita Brands International, one of the world’s largest food producers; the Charter Company, marketer of fuel to electric utilities; and the Great American Insurance Group.

Mr. Lindner became controlling partner and chief executive of the Cincinnati Reds in a 1999 deal that ended Ms. Schott’s rocky 15-year rule as owner. In contrast to her highly public style, Mr. Lindner stayed mostly in the background, though in 2000 he picked up Ken Griffey Jr. at the airport in his Rolls-Royce after a blockbuster trade had brought him to the Reds. Mr. Lindner sold his controlling share in the team in 2005.

Some critics considered him a ruthless takeover artist. He made millions in the 1970s and 1980s by investing in companies and then retreating from them. A reported attempt by Mr. Lindner to take over the Gannett Company prompted its former chairman, Al Neuharth, to call him a "shark in sheep’s clothing."

Though publicity-shy, he held a fund-raiser in his home for the presidential candidate George H. W. Bush in 1988. He also played host to Mr. Bush, then vice president, and President François Mitterrand of France at his vacation home in Ocean Reef, Fla., later that month.

Mr. Lindner paid his staff handsomely and threw lavish annual parties for them. At his 70th birthday party, Frank Sinatra entertained.

His fortunes began to slide in the late 1980s with the acquisition of Taft Broadcasting, a Cincinnati television and radio company. The $1.5 billion takeover left the new company, Great American Communications, mired in debt. It was forced to sell several major assets, including the cartoon creator Hanna-Barbera Productions.