TORONTO - Ted Rogers, creator of Canada's largest cable-television and mobile-phone company, has died at his Toronto home at the age of 75.
The founder of Rogers Communications Inc. had been treated in hospital in October for an existing heart condition.
A statement from the company early Tuesday said he was surrounded by loved ones when he died.
"Ted Rogers was one of a kind who built this company from one FM radio station into Canada's largest wireless, cable and media company," said Rogers Communications chairman and acting chief executive officer Alan Horn.
Rogers, long listed as one of Canada's wealthiest people, earlier handed over his corporate duties to Horn.
In addition to the Rogers cable, wireless, radio and television businesses, the company owns the Toronto Blue Jays and their home the Rogers Centre, five Citytv stations and an array of other media properties including Maclean's and Chatelaine magazines.
"Ted Rogers was one of the greatest entrepreneurs and builders our country has ever seen. I admired him enormously," CTVglobemedia President and Chief Executive Ivan Fecan said in a statement. "For us at CTVglobemedia, he was both a wonderful partner and very tough competitor. But at all times, he was a gentleman and his word was his bond. Our thoughts go out to his family and his employees. Ted always used to say: 'the best is yet to come'. Today, that's not true anymore."
Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind, who worked alongside Ted Rogers for almost 40 years, says the cable pioneer "will be missed by so many."
"Though Ted was relentless in business and building this company over the years, he was also very much a family man," said Lind.
Accolades have been pouring in from around the world of sports and business including from MLB Commissioner Bud Selig.
"Major League Baseball is saddened by the loss of Ted Rogers, whose stewardship of the Blue Jays maintained the franchise's great tradition," Selig said in a statement. "Ted's spirit of philanthropy has left a tremendous legacy. On behalf of all his friends in baseball, I extend my deepest sympathy to his wife, Loretta, their children, their grandchildren and his many friends."
In 1950 at the age of 17, Ted Rogers made a list of things he wanted to accomplish in life which included, among other things, becoming a successful entrepreneur.
In his recent autobiography, "Relentless: The True Story of the Man Behind Rogers Communications," Rogers described the resistance he faced when he asked his board of directors to invest $500,000 in wireless technology in 1983.
"Every board member voted against me, even my wife," he wrote.
"They forced me to put my own money on the line, which I did. I just knew wireless was the next big thing and I wasn't about to miss it."
Rogers' investment paid off in spades, turning what started out as Rogers Cantel into Canada's largest cellphone company. Today Rogers Communications employs 24,000 people and is worth about $18 billion.
Rogers was widely regarded as a visionary who could size up the latest communications technology, then produce a plan and a pot of money to invest in it.
While he was widely praised for his business acumen and willingness to take risks, he was also criticized for taking on too much debt and emphasizing expansion over profits and dividends. He was unabashedly proud in recent years as Rogers Communications became regarded as a blue-chip corporation with a steady payout to investors.
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, a former executive of Rogers, said "no Canadian of his generation achieved more and gave more back than Ted Rogers."
"He was a visionary, an entrepreneur and a nationalist and built one of North America's great companies. Ted Rogers represented the gold standard when it comes to great Canadians. He will be sorely missed."
In later life, Rogers suffered from heart problems and at one point underwent quadruple bypass surgery.
He is survived by his wife, Loretta, whom he married in 1963, and their four children - Edward, Lisa, Melinda and Martha.
Funeral arrangements will be announced by the family.