US billionaire and ex-presidential candidate Ross Perot dies aged 89

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Reporter covering media, telecoms and marketing. Get in touch at james.warrington.com

US billionaire and two-time presidential candidate Ross Perot has died at the age of 89, his family has said.

The feisty Texan tech tycoon made his name and his fortune after selling a majority stake in the data company he founded to General Motors for $2.5bn (£2bn) in 1984.

But he was best known for running in the 1992 US presidential election, alongside Bill Clinton and George HW Bush. He also launched a bid for the White House in 1996.

“Ross Perot, the ground-breaking businessman and loving husband, brother, father and grandfather, passed away early Tuesday at his home in Dallas, surrounded by his devoted family,” the Perot family said in a statement. 

A family spokesperson said leukemia was the cause of death.

Perot, whose fortune was estimated at $4.1bn by Forbes in April this year, was known for his direct and assertive approach.

When two of his employees were jailed in Iran in 1978, he organised for a private team of commandos to break them out.

In politics, he ran as an independent and garnered support among disaffected voters who had lost faith in the Republican and Democratic parties.

In 1992 he finished in third place with a respectable 19 per cent of the vote. His second campaign, during which he founded the Reform Party, was less successful and he gained just eight per cent of the vote.

Source: Cityam.com

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