J. Michael Cline, who helped create Fandango in 1999 and took part in multiple startups over the last numerous decades, died on Tuesday while he fell from a lodge in New York City, consistent with metropolis officials.
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The New York Police Department said officers spoke back to 911 calls from the Kimberly Hotel at 50th Street and Lexington Avenue at approximately 7:20 a.m.
“Officers discovered an unconscious and unresponsive male with accidents regular with a fall from an accelerated position,” a deputy commissioner in the department’s public information workplace stated in an e-mail to TechCrunch.
According to The New York Times, Cline fell from the 20th tale of the motel.
Emergency scientific personnel arrived quickly after and suggested him useless. An investigation is underway. The medical expert’s office said it had but to decide a reason or way of demise as of Tuesday afternoon. Police diagnosed him as James Michael Cline, 64, of Palm Beach, Fla.
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Cline founded Fandango alongside his chief operating officer, Art Levitt. Described on LinkedIn as “America’s movie ticketing service,” it sold tickets online for showings ranging from wide releases to art-house films at independent theaters.
Fandango fought its chief rival, MovieTickets.com, for supremacy in online ticket sales for years after its founding. By charging fees per ticket and selling online ads around them — plus offering features such as film trailers — Fandango helped build digital businesses that later became profit generators for exhibitors and studios alike.
What started as a convenience for consumers willing to pay extra money to avoid lines spread through theaters across America — then jumped international borders — before morphing into today’s $37 billion global market for all tickets bought via computer or phone.
Comcast acquired Fandango just two years after it launched; within four more years, Cline was gone from the company post, too. He exited in October 2011 as chairman of Fandango and president of pre-sales at NBCUniversal.
According to his LinkedIn page, Cline also co-founded Accretive, a venture capital firm. He held other titles throughout his career: managing partner at R1 RCM; founder and CEO at Acumen, which provides laboratory management system software; executive chairman at Everspring, an online education company; founder and COO at Dresr, a fashion marketplace; founder and chief revenue officer at Accolade, a healthcare benefits platform; and director of business development at Insureon, an insurance brokerage for small businesses.
Since 2018, Cline has been executive chairman of Juxtapose, a venture capital firm with investments in technology businesses. According to his staff biography on the company website. Which had been taken offline by Tuesday afternoon — he “particularly enjoyed investing in healthcare companies.”
Some of Juxtapose’s portfolio includes Tend.ai and Nectar Sleep Services.
Their wife, Liz, and three children survive him. A family spokesman declined to comment.
Fandango and other industry players did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
