Fandango founder fell or jumped from a skyscraper in New York

J. Michael Cline, founding investor and former chairman of the online ticket service Fandango, died on Tuesday after falling from the window of a high-rise hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

The New York Post had the news first. The NYPD confirmed to Deadline that a man with that name and age (64) fell from the Kimberly Hotel at 145 East 50th. He reportedly committed suicide and left a note.

Cline was managing partner at Accretive, a company that funds startups, and chairman of the board of Juxtapose, which has a similar mission but specializes in building consumer-facing companies, according to social media and company websites.

Before founding Accretive, Cline was a founding investor in Fandango in 2000 as a partner at General Atlantic. The ticket service’s early employees Deadline spoke to today described him as absolutely critical to getting the new company off the ground. In particular, he negotiated deals with theater chains like Regal and Cinemark, none of which were yet using online listings, to join the site. He wanted Fandango to compete with the then-800-pound gorilla Moviefone, the ubiquitous phone-based listing service founded in 1989.

A former colleague said Cline was “creative and made sure exhibitors had enough options so it made sense for them.” He described Cline as generous and philanthropic and that he donated significant sums to environmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund.

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Other companies he founded include R1 RCM, Accolade, Insureon, Everspring and Accumen.

Cline and others exited Fandango in 2007 and sold a majority stake to NBCUniversal, which still owns the company. Warner Bros Discovery is a minority investor.

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call 988 or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.