Ty Warner is the CEO, sole owner and founder of Ty Inc. which manufactures and distributes stuffed toys, including Beanie Babies and other lines. On the Forbes 2016 list of the world's billionaires, he was ranked #722 with a net worth of US$2.4 billion. Warner dropped out of Kalamazoo College in Michigan after one year and moved to Los Angeles, California to start a career in acting. He had little success as an actor and returned to Chicago after five years. There he began working for plush toy maker Dakin as a salesman, the same company where his father worked. In 1980 he was fired by Dakin, reportedly for selling his own products in competition with the company's line. In 1986, he mortgaged his home and invested his life savings and a bequest from his father into founding Ty Inc. After starting out selling stuffed toy cats (inspired by some Warner had seen in Italy), in 1993 Ty Inc. launched Beanie Babies. At the peak of the Beanie craze, the privately owned Ty Inc. is believed to have earned over $700 million in profits in a year. On December 31, 1999, Ty Inc. announced that it would stop making Beanie Babies
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