“Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is the world’s richest man, worth an estimated $US67.8 billion, after overtaking Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates, according to a respected tracker of Mexican financial wealth today,” The Herald Sun reports.
“A 27-percent surge in the share price of America Movil, Latin America’s largest mobile phone operator controlled by Mr Slim, from March to June made him close to $US8.6 billion wealthier than Mr Gates, said Eduardo Garcia in Sentido Comun, the online financial publication he founded,” The Herald Sun reports. “Mr Garcia estimated that Mr Gates was worth $US59.2 billion.”
Full article here.
“The Mexican billionaire has also made some savvy stock picks. In 1997, he bought about three percent of Apple Computer at 17 dollars a share shortly before the company launched its hit iMac computer. Twelve months later, Apple’s shares topped $100,” AFP reports.
Full article here.
Looks like Billy got his wish.
Is he the guy who invented the slim card for the iPhone?
Bill is really on his way out…look at Mossbergs All Things Digital Conference…Steve Jobs acted like a kid in a candy shop…whereas Gates acted like “clear my schedule for this week, and uh, by the way, where’s the recliner?” Gates has stuck around and gradually fizzled his way out the door to keep M$’s stock from tanking.
He has really been gone for a long time. Ballmer$oft is in effect.
None of us had a choice what race we would be when our Mom downloaded us…but we do have a choice when choosing a longterm advanced technology plan over a stagnant mediocre technology plan.
Sit on AAPL longterm! It is only the beginning.
You people are really a bunch of infuriatingly pedantic childish asses, you know that? No wonder she left.
looks like the tide has finally turned…
I agree that immigrants should come here legally and jump through all the INS hoops just like my wife did from China. But, I do think that it should be made a little easier for people wishing to make a life here to jump through those hoops, especially all the application fees. We did all the process legally, and it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t cheap.
He’s the Real Slim Shady.
@M@c
It’s not just cell phones. He almost owns the entire telecommunications infrastructure of Latin America. That is just part of it. Someone with that kind of power and $$$ is very diversified. He made his money on the back of Mexicans to infiltrate other markets. Very intelligent dubious individual.
The sad part about the status of the illegal immigrant worker is that we manage to pay him just enough not to be considered a slave, but not for his benefit, but for our own.
End of an era (or is that error?).
Bill Gates is probably trying to sell down his MSFT shares as quickly as possible. Otherwise, he will be much further down the list.
All descedents of Euros, Africans and Asian are foreigners – originally. I heard a comedian last week wonder out loud if native Americans wished that they had implemented a stricter immigration policy.
On topic, I think Bill’s done all he should be allowed to do to the rest of the world – and he’s been well compensated for his efforts – Now can we move on – as in way past Windows and its myriad parts components and hooks that leave even the strongest and most knowledgeable bewildered, frustrated and humiliated? Can we – please…? Now?
Froma BusinessWeek Article February 21, 2000
Carlos Slim Helu.
Over the years, he has built an industrial, retail, and telecommunications empire with about $16 billion in annual sales.
His best-known company is Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), the giant Mexican telecom that he bought in partnership with Southwestern Bell Corp. and France Telecom when it was privatized in 1990. In recent years, Telmex American depositary receipts have been one of the most widely traded shares on the New York Stock Exchange. And he also owns Prodigy Inc., the third-largest Internet service provider in the U.S. In addition, he has a financial services group called Grupo Financiero Inbursa, and an industrial-retail conglomerate, Grupo Carso.
NY Times June 27
His businesses have a hand in just about everything: one company built Mexico’s largest offshore oil platform, another sells CDs. He has interests in retailing, banking, insurance, mining, road building and cigarettes.
@M.T. Wence….try not to be a childish ass yourself and qualify your statements just a little more please. Using the second person plural is intellectually lazy. Some of us are actually grown up asses (another joke by the way).
So he’s the second richest. Sucks to be him
Owner of Tracfone and Net10 prepaid mobile cell phone companies.
Bill Gates is probably trying to sell down his MSFT shares as quickly as possible.
Hey Bill! Wanna get back on top of that list?
Buy AAPL.
Enough said.
Xeophobia – an intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/jazz/citizens_1
http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?SKU=4156
http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=21050
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-American_War
@ Chrissy One’s black golfer comment:
Chrissy One reveals her true ignorance–You go girl!
Chrissy…..hmmm any coincidence with Suzanne Summer’s ditzy, clueless character “Chrissy” from “3’s Company” TV show? I think so.
I don’t like foreigners. There I said it.
So now that there is someone richer than bill gates, can’t Carlos buy out Microsoft.
@ChrissyOne
Go back to your history classes dear. The whole USA is “foreigners,” don’t be ignorant. That’s why America has been traditionally referred to as the “Melting Pot.”
Any healthy, legal, hardworking, english-learning (that’s the Melting Pot part), non-terrorist foreigners have been welcome for over a hundred years. All my immigrant grandparents were that respecful type. I used to ask my Dad what nationality I was when I was a kid and he’d say “American!” People celebrated and kept their ethnic roots as families, not nationally–asking for special favors or languages to be altered on public signs and elsewhere as a second language. This is what is making people like Chrissy dislike “foreigners.”
You’re right I don’t like them.
Good 1 !
Jul 03, 07 – 02:39 pm Comment from: Georgy Porgy
I agree that immigrants should come here legally and jump through all the INS hoops just like my wife did from China. But, I do think that it should be made a little easier for people wishing to make a life here to jump through those hoops, especially all the application fees. We did all the process legally, and it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t cheap.
Jul 03, 07 – 02:56 pm Comment from: Yours Smugly
He’s the Real Slim Shady.
Jul 03, 07 – 03:29 pm Comment from: Mac-nugget
@M@c
It’s not just cell phones. He almost owns the entire telecommunications infrastructure of Latin America. That is just part of it. Someone with that kind of power and $$$ is very diversified. He made his money on the back of Mexicans to infiltrate other markets. Very intelligent dubious individual.
Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest person on the planet, the Mexican financial website Sentido Comun reported.
Sentido Comun said the Mexican billionaire’s wealth had rocketed past Gates following the red-hot performance of his telecommunications firm, America Movil.
US-based Forbes magazine, renowned for its rankings of the world’s wealthiest individuals, updated its listings in April to rank Slim as the second richest individual in the world, as he superseded the legendary American investor Warren Buffett.
Substantially richer than gates
The Mexican financial website said Slim’s lead over Gates amounted to billions of dollars.
“Thanks to a 26.5 percent rise in the shares of America Movil during the second quarter, Slim, who controls a 33 percent interest in Latin America’s largest mobile phone company, is substantially richer than Gates,” Sentido Comun said.
“The difference between their two fortunes is around $9-billion in favor of Slim,” the financial website claimed.
It said it had based its calculations largely on the share price movements of companies controlled by Slim.
The website said soaring performances from Slim’s other business interests had also helped propel him past Gates.
Business in his blood
Aside from America Movil, Slim controls the Inbursa financial group and the Grupo Carso industrial firm with interests spanning retail stores, coffee shops and restaurants.
One reason for Slim’s meteoric rise might be because he is also still working. Gates stepped aside as Microsoft chief in 2000 to devote his energies to the philanthropic foundation he runs with his wife, Melinda.
Forbes in April had pegged Slim’s wealth at a staggering $53.1-billion, and said Gates was sitting on a $56-billion fortune.
Slim, the son of Lebanese immigrants, has had business in his blood from his early days when he helped out in his father’s shop, “The Star of the Orient”.
The 67-year-old, who is heavyset and bearded, started out in real estate and was already affluent enough when he graduated from university with an engineering degree to buy stakes in a stock brokerage and a bottling firm.
During the crippling Latin American economic crisis of the early 1980, Slim snapped up and reformed a number of distressed businesses, banking massive profits for Grupo Carso.
Carso gained its name from the first three letters of Slim’s name and the first two of his late wife’s, Soumaya Gemayel.
The smartest buy?
Analysts say one of Slim’s smartest and most lucrative deals occurred when he took control of Telefonos de Mexico (Telemex) in 1990 as the government moved to privatise the sprawling monopoly.
Slim oversaw a $1.8-billion investment to take over Telemex, but he then overhauled the company and expanded its service as the telecom firm became the star of the Mexican stock exchange and more than returned Slim’s initial investment.
The Mexican billionaire has also made some savvy stock picks.
In 1997, he bought about three percent of Apple Computer at 17 dollars a share shortly before the company launched its hit iMac computer. Twelve months later, Apple’s shares topped $100.
Despite his vast riches, Slim reportedly shuns corporate jets and flashy offices and sported a plastic watch during the 1990s.
Widowed in 1999, Slim has boosted his philanthropic presence and overseen his three sons’ careers within his business empire.
Just goes to show – the richer you get the less personality you have.
Bill Gates and all these rich bastards are so fucking boring to talk to.
But I suppose thats how you become if you are soley obsessed about money and success.
Well here’s a message for all you billion/millionaires out there..
BETTER SPEND IT WHEN YOURE ALIVE BECAUSE YOU CANT SPEND IT WHEN YOURE DEAD.
You guys may be rich beyond belief but all the money in the world cant buy reincarnation or imortality!
So in that sense you people are as poor as the rest of us!