NEW YORK — Daniel Burke, a media industry veteran who helped create Capital Cities/ABC Inc. before it was sold to The Walt Disney Co., has died of complications from diabetes. He was 82.
Burke, along with Tom Murphy, built Capital Cities from a television station in Albany, N.Y., into a company with newspapers, magazines and TV and radio operations.
With Warren Buffett’s backing, Capital Cities Communications bought ABC for $3.5 billion in 1986, in what was then the largest non-oil company merger in corporate history.
After helping merge the two companies, Burke was elevated to CEO, where he remained until he retired in February 1994 on his 65th birthday.