Mexican billionaire becomes third-largest shareholder of NYT
Why is the world's second-richest man investing in old media asks Marla Dickerson in this report after Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu revealed this week that he and his family had acquired a 6.4% stake in the New York Times Co., owner of the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe and 16 other daily newspapers.
Slim, pictured above to the left of singer Shakira at a charity event earlier this year, has a fortune estimated at $60 billion. He has earned a reputation as a savvy bottom feeder who invests in quality brands that are undervalued. On Thursday, a Helu spokesman characterized the investment as "exclusively a financial transaction" but declined to elaborate further.
"Still, Lauren Rich Fine, a former Merrill Lynch & Co. newspaper analyst, is dubious that Slim has spotted an opportunity that everyone else on Wall Street has missed.
"Online advertising has been slow to materialize at the New York Times, while print revenue continues to slide. The company's largest investor, Harbinger Capital Partners, launched a proxy fight earlier this year to force changes in the way the company is managed, with only partial success. Slim's ability to influence decision-making at the family-controlled firm appears limited.
" 'He apparently does have a good track record of buying depressed assets and extracting value from them," said Rich Fine, who teaches media management at Kent State University. 'But this is an industry that's in disarray. So it's really unclear what he's thinking.' "
Read the rest of the dispatch on Carlos Slim's investment in the New York Times Co. here.
Click here for more on Mexico and here for more about business.
Photo: Carlos Slim Helu (front, at left), Shakira and Howard Graham Buffett raise their interlocked hands to support early childhood development funding in Latin America. Credit: Sarah Meghan Lee / For The Times
As a student of health, I am sad to say Mr. Slim's photo shows many signs of a body in poor condition. Perhaps the business world should start preparing to do business with his followers.
Posted by: Mick | September 13, 2008 at 05:31 PM
Great report. Love the photo of Slim and Shakira.
Posted by: john | September 13, 2008 at 03:06 PM