Pioneering CNN founder Ted Turner dead at 87

CNN founder and Ted Turner Enterprises chairman Ted Turner at a past event. [ Nicholas Kamm, AFP]

Ted Turner, the flamboyant US entrepreneur who transformed television news with the creation of CNN in 1980, has died at the age of 87, the network said Wednesday.

The mustached southerner, yachting enthusiast and philanthropist, whose empire also included sports clubs, had been suffering from the degenerative disease Lewy Body Dementia.