Modern Mogul: Howard Gittis (#357)

Howard Gittis: New York, N.Y. $55,120. Party: Both

By L.J. Davis

Howard Gittis, a vice president at MacAndrews & Forbes, has been corporate raider Ron Perelman's right-hand man ever since Michael Milken's junk bonds helped build the company from a $1.9 million loan in 1978 to a $5 billion conglomerate today.

From their Manhattan headquarters (housed in the old Revlon Building, whose unbearably cute beauty-parlor decor they have not bothered to change), Gittis and Perelman are poised to be the entertainment moguls of the future--if the government doesn't get in their way. Their biggest deal so far traded ownership of eight CBS affiliates to Rupert Murdoch for $500 million and a guarantee that Murdoch's Fox network will broadcast programming created by their studio, New World Communications.

The transaction hit a snag when the FCC began questioning whether the deal--which gave Murdoch a stake in 29 television stations--gave him an illegally large national national audience. Well-placed contributions, heavy lobbying of the GOP Congress, and the Murdoch-financed book deal with Newt Gingrich seem to have taken care of any concern over possible monopilies--the GOP telecommunications bill includes a provision that safeguards the Perelman-Murdoch deal.