Founder of Fandango J. Michael Cline Dies After Falling from Manhattan Hotel

According to the police, J. Michael Cline, the co-founder of Fandango, an online ticketing firm that revolutionized the moviegoing experience for Americans, passed away this week after falling from a Manhattan hotel's twentieth story.

Shortly after 10 a.m., New York City police were summoned to The Kimberly Hotel, located at 145 East 50th Street in Manhattan. There, they discovered Cline suffering from injuries "indicative of a fall from an elevated position," according to the police. The time of his death was 10:30.

There is an ongoing investigation, according to police, but "no criminality is suspected."

According to his LinkedIn profile, 64-year-old J. Michael Cline co-founded Fandango in 2000 and departed the company in 2011. The company, which is well-known to many thanks to its eye-catching orange "F" logo in the form of a ticket stub, was eventually purchased by Comcast and is presently owned by Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal.

The business controlled the ticketing for a number of large theater chains and dominated the movie ticket market for many years. It generated revenue from the sale of advertising on its website and a processing fee for tickets purchased online.

Cline managed digital and venture capital enterprises in addition to Fandango. In the 2000s, a scandal arose around Fandango's establishment of a debt collecting agency while his private equity firm, Accretive, held a stake in the National Arbitration Forum, the country's largest consumer debt arbitration body.

He served as executive chairman of Juxtapose, which assisted in the founding of several software companies in industries ranging from property management to health and wellness, at the time of his passing.

By all accounts, Cline was a prosperous businessman who amassed multimillion-dollar properties in affluent communities such as Palm Beach, Florida; Greenwich, Connecticut; and the Hamptons. In addition, he was a generous donor and most recently held the position of chairman of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's board.

Cline is survived by his wife, Pamela, and six children.