Carlos slim success story. Billionaire Carlos Slim Helu: biography, net worth. Carlos Slim Helu - an ordinary person

National businessman

Carlos Slim Al has held the title for three years now. This is the first person to displace American billionaires from the top of the table of ranks. Over the past two decades, they alone reigned supreme in this shrine of all the saints of world business.

Forbes magazine elevated him to the top of the world's rich three years ago. Then his main rival was Bill Gates.

The main principle of Carlos’s success is the desire to move forward:

he was included in the Forbes rotation of billionaires in 2002, when his fortune was €11 billion;
in 2006 he was already in third place with a capital of $20 billion;
in 2010, his fortune was estimated at $53.5 billion, which is approximately his homeland - Mexico;
in 2011, he added another $20.5 billion to it, while Gates added $3 billion.

He was born into a Lebanese refugee family

The fate of Carlos Slim Helu can be a manual on how to “make yourself” (a very popular expression in the United States that characterizes successful businessmen). However, his father played a big role in his development as a talented entrepreneur. Carlos was the fifth of children born in Mexico City, into a family of Lebanese immigrants. This happened on January 28, 1940. The arrival of his father Julian in Mexico was caused by the ardent desire of his family to save the young man from serving in the Turkish army. In Mexico City, he met the daughter of a successful merchant, his fellow countryman. And since his business acumen could not be denied, he immediately became involved in real estate transactions. In 1920, Julian bought a house in the center of Mexico City and turned it into a thriving supermarket. And so that the money would not go elsewhere, he put all six of his children to work.

The smartest of them turned out to be little Carlos. His business acumen gave his father the basis to place the teenager in the field of stock investing.

17 year old millionaire

Already at the age of 17, Carlos made the first million of his future huge fortune. In parallel with his business, he studied civil engineering, choosing the National Autonomous University of Mexico for his studies. He was such a diligent and undoubtedly talented student that his teachers allowed him, when he was already completing his studies, to teach his fellow students the basics of linear programming and algebra. In 1961, he received a diploma from the above-mentioned university, but, of course, work in his specialty did not appeal to the young millionaire. He turned his initial capital into investments, directing them towards development insurance business, real estate and trade. He bought hotels and acquired the Sanborns chain of stores. In the 60s, many different methods were proposed for the development of this area of the economy. Thus he laid the foundation for the systematic capitalization of his business.

His main principles of doing business during this period of time:

consumer goods in its trading network were available to buyers whose income leaves much to be desired;
his version of the circulation of funds proposed by the great Karl Marx: bought cheap - updated - sold dearly or annexed to his own empire.

Garso Group, Telmex and others

1982 marked a widespread economic crisis for Mexico. The country was unable to pay its external debt, and large businessmen sold off their assets cheaply. Coolly playing on the created panic, Carlos significantly increased his capital. As a result, his fortune was enriched by many promising companies. At the same time, he founded his main brainchild in the form of the investment holding Garso Group.

Following further along the path of the once chosen method, Carlos created the Frisco corporation as part of his empire, which quickly became a leader in the extraction of minerals (ore and coal) and began to crush the national chemical industry. As a result, he became the owner of a large number of companies in various sectors of the national economy. Now half of all Mexicans and Mexican businesses use his empire in some way every day or do business with it as partners. Carlos abruptly went into politics, communicating with his namesake in 1988-94. Carlos Salinas de Gortari, his friend, was the President of Mexico at the time. It is quite possible that it was thanks to such powerful patrons that he was able to privatize the state telecommunications company Telmex, which was a monopolist in this market segment.

Master of Telecommunications

For the entire five years that followed this major deal, Carlos put things in order in his sprawling affairs. And in the end, he completely reconstructed his entire business and successfully avoided another national default in 1995. His beloved Telmex, as a result, became the leader in national economy, providing its owner with an annual income of $1 billion. And not accustomed to resting on his laurels, Slim added Condumex (telecommunications equipment) and Prodigy (the first national provider and web pioneer) to his empire. At the very turn of the millennium, he invested $1.5 billion in American companies operating fiber-optic networks and centers cellular communication Florida and Puerto Rico. Over time, he became the rightful owner of telecommunications throughout Latin America. He is called the Mexican Bill Gates. It employs 200 thousand people. He is a major philanthropist. Has many awards and titles. He considers:

family is the most precious thing a person has;
wealth comes from a vegetable garden, and one should share with others not the trees, but the fruits;
that in an effort to change the world for the better, so that children are happy, it is better to change children so that they then serve the world;
Don't indulge in excess when you're rich - and your business will remain stable even in difficult times!

Carlos Slim Helu is a Mexican billionaire, businessman, one of the richest people on the planet. Interestingly, it was he who was the first in sixteen years to overtake the Americans in the global ranking of billionaires, taking the leading position. According to Forbes magazine, Carlos Slim surpassed even Bill Gates in 2010 due to the growth in the value of his companies' assets. True, not by much, only 500 million dollars. However, this was enough for Carlos Slim Helu to become the richest man on the planet. His fortune is estimated at approximately $53.5 billion. This businessman's personal net worth is estimated by some funds mass media, accounts for about 8 percent of Mexico's total GDP.

Origin of Carlos Slim

The success story of this billionaire is very informative and interesting. Carlos Slim Helu was born in Mexico City in 1940, on January 28. He was the fifth child in the family of a Lebanese refugee and the daughter of a successful Lebanese merchant. Julian Slim, his father, moved to Mexico in 1902. The fact is that the family wanted to save Julian from serving in the troops of the Ottoman Empire.

First million earned

Carlos' father had business acumen. In his new place, he started the real estate business. Then, in 1920, Julian purchased real estate in downtown Mexico City and opened a supermarket here. This man managed to found a successful trading business, where all six of his children began working. From them he demanded diligence, talent and devotion. In return, the children received large pocket money, which they had to learn to manage from the first grade of school. Carlos had good business sense. The teenager, with the blessing of his father, began to engage in stock investing, the rules of which he mastered at the age of seventeen. It was then that Carlos Slim earned his first million.

University studies

Continuing to work successfully in this direction, he also managed to study at the university at the Faculty of Civil Engineering. In his final years, Carlos Slim taught algebra and linear programming in other streams. In 1961, he received his diploma, but did not work in his profession.

Personal life

In 1966, Carlos married Somaya Domit Germayel. This girl was also of Lebanese descent. She was the cousin of Gemayel, the Lebanese president. The couple were happily married for 32 years, until Somaiya's death in 1999. Today, Slim is considered, despite his extra pounds, double chin and advanced age, to be an eligible bachelor. However, he is indifferent to beauties, and glamorous fame does not appeal to him.

Carlos' strategy

Having accumulated a decent amount of capital, he used it in the insurance business, as well as the purchase of hotels and Sanborns stores. Carlos Slim's focus in retailing was to reduce the cost of consumer goods, making them accessible to poorer Mexican shoppers. This became the basis of his business, his growing capitalization. Buying cheap, then upgrading and either selling high or joining the growing family empire is the Mexican tycoon's constant strategy.

Foundation of the famous holding

The country defaulted in 1982 due to the inability to pay off its external debt. A large-scale economic crisis occurred in Mexico. For a few centimes, investors got rid of the substantial assets they had accumulated. Carlos Slim, whose biography is the topic of our article, took advantage of the panic situation. He used the money left over from his father and bought many promising companies for next to nothing. It was then that the famous investment holding Carso Group. This name is made up of the first syllables of the names of Carlos and Somaya, his wife.

Expansion into various market sectors

The next step was the mining of coal and ore. The Frisco Corporation, which is still part of the Group Carso syndicate, has become a leader in the country's mining and chemical industries.

Expansion of companies owned by Carlos into various industries By the end of the 1980s, the market had reached such a scale that every second resident of the country, as well as every second enterprise, in one way or another encountered every day at least one of the many structures owned by this millionaire, being consumers of the goods and services he produced.

Political assets

Carlos Slim, whose fortune was already very large at that time, in addition to economic assets, also acquired political ones. His contacts with high-ranking Mexican officials are informal and friendly. Among them, the most valuable was the friendship with Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the president of this country in 1988-1994. Slim's ill-wishers argue that the personal sympathies of the Mexican president allegedly played to the millionaire's advantage when the question arose of the privatization of the state telecommunications company Telmex, which at that time, and for many years later, was a monopolist in the Mexican communications services market.

Acquisition of Telmex

De Gortari, who pursued a tough course on the privatization of state-owned enterprises and deregulation of the economy, decided to send a number of companies to auction, including Telmex. A group of investors, led by Carlos Slim Helu, won the tender. Slim paid for the stake he received for several years with money from the proceeds that the acquired company received. Carlos, by investing in politics, secured the support of the Mexican government for his business for many years.

The shocking fact of the acquisition of Telmex caused outrage in society, a storm of indignation in government circles and in the press. It led to a whole series of mass proceedings. The process ended in nothing, but all this time the president was forced to explain himself to the public and the government.

Work at Telmex

Meanwhile, Carlos Slim Helu continued to build a financial empire. His biography during these years is marked by the fact that he directed all his efforts to work in the acquired company. It took him five years to put it in order: to rebuild technical base, arrange corporate governance, create a range of services. These efforts were not in vain - the reconstruction, carried out over five years, allowed the company in 1995 to avoid a national disaster that devalued the Mexican peso. Telmex, thus, met the new stage of development of the Mexican industry not as a decrepit company with government protection, but by acting as the leader of the country's economy and as the main supplier of telecommunications services.

Telmex enjoyed a monopoly in the Mexican market throughout the 1990s. The company even now occupies about 80-90 percent of the country's fixed-line market, as well as about 70% of the mobile market.

New companies within the holding and new cooperation

In 1996, the Group Carso syndicate was spun off into a holding company called Carso Global Telecom. The main task was to coordinate the technical, organizational and financial resources of the Elu group. Subsequently, the holding included the Condumex company, which produces telecommunications equipment, as well as Prodigy, the first provider in Mexico, and also a pioneer of commercial web activities.

Carlos Slim invested $1.5 billion in 1999 to control several American firms that operate cellular telephone centers and fiber optic networks in Puerto Rico and Florida.

Together with SBC, in February 2000, he became a co-owner of Network Access Solutions, a well-known Internet provider. Cooperation with Microsoft made it possible to triple the number of Internet users, which led to an increase in sales computer equipment.

a Christmas gift

Carlos, it should be said, has always been afraid of the IT industry and computer technology. However, everything changed at Christmas, when Carlos Slim Helu received a modern laptop as a gift from his sons. The family didn't make a mistake with their choice. Perhaps it was this laptop that changed Slim’s attitude towards the telecommunications segment, which was the reason for working in this direction.

Conquering the Latin American market

Over time, Carlos began to look for opportunities to expand his business beyond his country. He sought to conquer Latin American market. To do this, Slim began buying up regional telecom operators. In 2000, he acquired a number of telephone operators that had gone bankrupt due to the financial crisis, which provided the millionaire with a dominant position in the telecommunications market throughout Latin America.

Carlos Slim today

The mirror of Mexican evolution is Carlos Slim Helu. This is an entrepreneur who uses connections in the government apparatus, but is far from the ideals of free competition and an open market. On the other hand, this is, of course, a talented person who is aimed not only at acquisitiveness, but also at creation. Telmex, after all, not only collected all the profits and benefits of the monopolist. Under Slim's leadership, over the first ten years the company modernized its networks and quadrupled the number of subscribers. From the late 1990s and over the next ten years, 30 million Mexicans - people with low incomes - gained access to mobile communications.

Daria Nikitina

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The son of a Lebanese immigrant who moved to Mexico in 1902, billionaire Carlos Slim Helu is today the richest man in the world. It is noteworthy that the list of the richest people on the planet is headed by Carlos Slim Helu for the second year in a row, during which the billionaire increased his fortune by another $20.5 billion. this moment The telecommunications tycoon's capital is estimated at $74 billion.

The success story of Carlos Slim Helu

The success story of Carlos Slim Helu is very interesting and educational. The future billionaire was born on January 28, 1940 in Mexico City. The foundation of Carlos Slim Helu's capital was laid by his father. He created a real estate company that brought good income, and a little later, in 1920, he acquired real estate in the business district of Mexico City, which became the foundation for the well-being of the Slim family.

But still, Carlos Slim did not become the heir to a million-dollar fortune, although he had a good stable income. So, without any exaggeration, his current status as a billionaire can be called a personal achievement based on hard work, business acumen and, undoubtedly, entrepreneurial talent.

Carlos Slim started his business activity with a retail chain, relying on moderate prices for the far from wealthy population of Mexico. And it justified itself. The next step was the mining of coal and ore, and today the Frisco Corporation, owned by Carlos Al, is one of the leaders in the national mining and chemical industries.

It should be noted that in the process of developing his business, Carlos Helu established extensive political connections, thanks to which he later became the actual owner of the telecommunications market in Mexico. A vision of the future, as well as a thoughtful and timely response to development advanced technologies strengthened Carlos Slim's financial position, and today he owns the leading national mobile operators.

In addition, Carlos Slim is one of the key figures in the Internet provider market in Latin America. It is impossible not to mention Carlos Slim Helu as a philanthropist. There is about $4 billion in the accounts of the charitable institutions he created. And in the coming years, another $6 billion is planned to be received. In addition, the entrepreneur has invested $500 million in social sphere and education in Mexico. That's less than what you spend on charity

Carlos Slim Helu is a Mexican billionaire who tops the Forbes list. His fortune, as of 2013, is $73 billion. At the same time, his name appears in the press much less frequently than the names of the world’s second and third billionaires, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. But the other day he made a statement that caused the media in many countries to write about him. Carlos Slim Helu expressed the opinion that people should work only three days a week, devoting 10-11 hours a day to work. People should spend four days off with their families, taking care of their health and education. At the same time, 74-year-old Carlos Slim is sure that now people are retiring too early. We must allow them to work fully until they are 70 years old, and for those who feel strong enough, even longer. Three days - work, four - rest and do other things. Who is this person offering such an attractive life plan?

Carlos Slim Helu was born on January 28, 1940 in Mexico City. He was the fifth child of a Lebanese refugee and the daughter of a successful Lebanese merchant. His father, Julian Slim, came to Mexico in 1902 to escape compulsory conscription into the army of the Ottoman Empire.

Julian Slim quickly settled into his new place. At the beginning of his career, he traded real estate, and later he himself became the owner of several mansions and a supermarket in the business part of Mexico City. All six of Julian’s children helped their father from an early age, for which they received “pocket money” that was quite impressive by children’s standards. The father watched how the children spent their savings, teaching them the basics of money management along the way. Each of the children had a notebook in which they wrote down their income and expenses, and the father not only controlled the movement of money, but also gave advice on how to increase capital.

Of all the children, Carlos was the smartest, most talented and diligent. In addition, the boy had a knack for mathematics, which helped him get into investing. Carlos made his first “adult” investments at the age of 12, purchasing shares of a Mexican bank. And Carlos Slim Elu earned his first million when the young man was only 17 years old.

Success in business did not blind either Carlos or his father. The young man entered the National University of Mexico, where he studied construction while continuing to play on the stock exchange. During his senior years, Carlos earned money in another, rather unusual way - he taught algebra and programming to students of other courses.

At the age of 25, Carlos left the university with a diploma in civil engineering, but he never began working in his specialty. By that time, young Slim already owned quite a significant capital, part of which he invested in the purchase of hotels, insurance business and trade. In the latter industry, Slim had an idea. It was to ensure that the prices of goods in his stores were affordable for ordinary Mexicans.

In 1982, Mexico experienced a large-scale economic crisis due to the country's inability to pay off its external debt. Taking advantage of this, the wealthy Slim bought many assets on the cheap. Many promising companies that found themselves in a hopeless situation became the property of Slim. At the same time, Slim founded his first investment holding, Carso Group. The name of the holding is formed from the first syllables of the names of Carlos and his wife Soumaya.

During the crisis of the 80s, Carlos Slim turned his attention to the mining industry. As a result, he becomes the owner of the Frisco Corporation, a leader in the national mining and chemical industries.

Slim's influence on the Mexican economy becomes such that every Mexican encounters his companies or products. At this time, Slim begins his ascent to the heights of political Olympus. True, Slim does not go directly into politics, preferring to establish and maintain good relations with the authorities. Close relations and even friendship with the President of Mexico in 1988-94, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, played into the hands of Slim in the privatization of the then monopolist in the communications market - the state telecommunications company Telmex (Telefonos de Mexico).

This acquisition subsequently became the cause of a major scandal. The fact is that having acquired a stake, Slim, according to the terms of the contract, had to share part of the proceeds with Gotari and the country’s ruling party. The details of the deal were known only to the two of them, the investigation did not reveal much, and after Gotari resigned, the story came to naught.

Despite the blow to his reputation, Carlos Slim continued to explore the promising telecommunications market. In the late 90s and early 2000s, Slim became the owner of 30 percent of the shares of the Latin American consortium of cellular operators America Movil. In 2008 in The New York Times and Citibank. In 2011 he made an investment in the largest Spanish media company Prisa. Experts say that Carlos Slim often made investments at times when companies were experiencing difficulties and were even on the verge of crisis. Slim, thanks to his organizational skills, managed to organize the business so that it began to work again and make a profit. Slim parted with many of the “restored” assets. Naturally with a profit. I didn’t part with some of them even despite tempting offers. So in 2002, he acquired the obligations of the bankrupt WorldCom at a bargain price and became the largest shareholder of MCI, formed in its place. Verizon was ready to buy MCI shares from him for the sake of the merger, Slim would receive $600 million net profit. But he opposed the deal. As a result, Verizon had to pay him $1.12 billion. Slim's profit was about $1 billion.

A Mexican was included in the Forbes rich list for the first time in 2002. By 2006, he was among the top three, second only to Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. In 2007 - to second place on the Forbes list, and according to others, even Gates himself. The richest man in Forbes world names Carlos Slim in 2010. Since then he has managed to maintain leadership.

Interesting facts about Carlos Slim Helu

Loves art. The world's largest owner of Auguste Rodin sculptures. In honor of his wife, who died in 1999, he founded the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, which displays sculptures from his collection.
Once a year, the entire huge Slim family, including little grandchildren and sons - business tycoons, gathers on vacation on the west coast of Mexico. Family values and responsibility always come first for the Slims.
Slim's mansion has a humidor - a room with strictly controlled temperature and humidity necessary for storing cigars. According to the stories of experts, sometimes it was there, while smoking a cigar, that Slim made the most important decisions that brought him to the top of the list of rich people.
Carlos Slim himself taught mathematics to his six children, at the same time instilling in them the basics of business. Three sons followed in their father’s footsteps, the eldest of them, Carlos Slim Domit, holds the post of chairman of the board of directors of the Carso Group.
Mexico's richest man rarely uses bodyguards.
He is famous for his frugality and does not like luxury. Even to meetings at the highest level, he wears a simple electronic watch with a built-in calculator.
He founded the Carlos Slim Institute of Health, a foundation dedicated to the fight against cancer and diabetes.
millions and billions into Mexico's economy and education.
Carlos Slim Helu is one of the main investors in Nicholas Negroponte's "Laptop for Every Child" program.

10 rules of life from Carlos Slim Helu

When I decide to do something, I do it quickly.
When everyone was getting rid of assets during the crisis, I, on the contrary, bought.
I spend most of my time learning new technologies. I need to know what is happening in the world and how I can make money from it.
Poverty is the best environment for growth. Lifting my country out of poverty is the main investment of my life.
Wealth is a garden in which you need to share the fruits, not the trees.
Avoid excess even in the easiest times of your life, for this will provide you with stability in times of greatest difficulty.
Compromise and responsibility are the main components of a successful business.
My goal is not money. I strive to create successful companies with a close-knit team.
I don't care about my reputation. If you live in other people's thoughts, you are dead. I don't want to live the rest of my life worrying about what my descendants will say about me.
Many people want to change the world for the better for their children. I want to change my children so that they can serve the world.

The richest man in the world, Mexican Carlos Slim, has consistently held the leading position in the ranking of one of the most authoritative and well-known economic publications in the world, the American Forbes magazine, for more than three years. Today, the name of Carlos Slim is known all over the world - the Mexican communications tycoon of Arab origin created a sensation back in 2010, becoming the first non-American (non-US citizen) in 16 years to rise to the peak of the Forbes pyramid, displacing Bill Gates himself. Carlos made this breakthrough thanks to a rapid 27 percent jump in the cost of shares of America Moville, the largest cellular operator in Latin America, from March to June 2007. Slim owns 62% of the shares of this company, so the rise in stock prices directly affected his personal condition.

The future “richest man in the world” started small - at the age of 12 he invested his first savings in shares of Banco Nacional de México. Carlos owes his entrepreneurial acumen to his father, who in early childhood gave each of his sons a notebook and forced them to write down all their income and expenses, thereby teaching them to constantly monitor the balance of earnings and expenses. All notebooks were regularly looked through and analyzed at the family table, as a result of which the “winner” was determined - the most successful, enterprising and “rich” of them.

At the age of 17, Carlos Slim earned 200 pesos a week working at his father's company. Then Carlos entered the National Autonomous University of Mexico to major in Civil Engineering, while simultaneously teaching algebra and linear programming there.

After graduating from university, Slim began his career as a trader, gradually forming his own brokerage firm, which subsequently expanded significantly due to successful investments in individual enterprises, ranging from the construction and manufacturing industries to retail trade and restaurants.

In 1965, the investment firm Inversora Burstil became part of Carlos Slim's company, then Carlos bought Jarritos-del-Sur. By 1966, his firm was worth $40 million. Early in his career, Slim focused on real estate, construction and mining companies. In 1972, an enterprising Mexican acquired 7 more enterprises of this kind, including a rental company construction equipment, in 1976 bought a 60% stake in the printing business, and in 1980 strengthened his position through the formation of Grupo Galas, the main company of his conglomerate, which included many industrial, construction, mining, trading, food and tobacco enterprises.

In 1982, the Mexican economy was hit hard by a sharp drop in oil prices. Carlos Slim, taking advantage of the moment, buys many Mexican enterprises in whole or in part at bargain prices (by acquiring a nominal or controlling stake). These included metallurgical giant Reynolds Aluminio, Mexico's main tire plant General Popo, the Bimex hotels chain and grocery store retail company Sanborns. In addition, Slim's investment holding acquires a 40% Mexican stake in British American Tobacco and a 50% stake in Hershey. At the same time, Carlos looked into the financial sector, acquiring the company Seguros de M?xico and on its basis, with the help of additionally purchased Fianzas La Guardiana and Casa de Bolsa Inbursa, creates the largest financial company Mexico Grupo Financiero Inbursa. Most of funds for such colossal expenses came from the sales of the Cigatam tobacco company, which was brought back to life, also acquired by Slim at the time of the decline of the Mexican economy. In addition, many more enterprises in various economic niches were bought and by 1990 Grupo Galas finally entered the world market.

Also in 1990, Slim, together with France T?l?com and Southwestern Bell Corporation, bought Telmex landline telephone companies owned by the Mexican government. By 2006, 90% of inpatients telephone lines in Mexico are run by Telmex, while Carlos's other company, Telcel, covers almost eighty percent mobile phones. Telcel was created from the company Radiom?vil Dipsa. In 1991, Carlos Slim bought Hoteles Calinda (today OSTAR Grupo Hotelero), and in 1993 he increased his stake in General Tire and Grupo Aluminio to a controlling stake.

In 1996, Grupo Carso was divided into three companies - Carso Global Telecom, Grupo Carso, and Invercorporaci?n, and in 1997 Slim bought the Mexican share of the international retail chain Sears Roebuck. In 1999, Slim expanded his business interests beyond Latin America - he created Telmex USA and acquired a stake in Tracfone, a US cellular telephone company. At the same time, Carso Infraestructura is created at Construcci?n as part of Grupo Carso, responsible for the activities of construction and engineering companies included in the holding.

In 2000, Am?rica Telecom was created, a holding company for Am?rica M?vil, gradually buying out shares in various cellular telephone companies outside Mexico (including the Brazilian ATL and Telecom Americas, the Argentine Techtel, as well as mobile operators Guatemala and Ecuador). In subsequent years, Carlos Slim's investment activities expanded to telephone companies in Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile, Honduras and El Salvador. In 2005, Carlos created the IDEAL agency, which is engaged in the development and employment of qualified personnel in Latin America, and at the same time Slim invested in the Volaris airline.

Having accumulated 50.1% of the shares of the tobacco company Cigatam, Carlos Slim reduces his holdings by selling most of them to the tobacco giant Philip Morris in 2007 for $1.1 billion, and also sells his entire stake to Porcelanite for $800 million. At the same time, Carlos buys the rights to the Saks name and opens Saks Fifth Avenue in Santa Fe, New Mexico. IN next year Slim acquires a 6.4% stake in the media giant New York Times (by 2012, Carlos' share had increased to 8%). On December 8, 2007, Grupo Carso announces that 103 CompUSA stores will be sold or liquidated to put an end to the brand, while the IT portion of CompUSA continues to exist under the name Telvista with the main corporate offices in Dallas, Texas and Danville, Virginia. Today Telvista has five centers in Mexico (three in Tijuana, one in Mexicali and one in Mexico City).

Today Slim owns the Grupo Carso holding, which controls a number of large Mexican companies, mainly in the communications sector - Tel?fonos de M?xico, Altria Group, Telcel, Am?rica M?vil and the like. In 2010, Carlos removed Bill Gates from his pedestal the richest man planet, “overtaking” him by only half a billion - Slim’s fortune at that time reached $53.5 billion.

In March 2011, Carlos's fortune was estimated at $74 billion. Over the year it increased by $20.5 billion, but in 2012 it dropped to $69 billion, which, however, did not prevent him from remaining in first place Forbes rating. By December 2012, Slim had “recovered,” bringing his net worth to $75.5 billion. Overall, the wealth of the richest man in the world over the past three years has fluctuated between 5% and 8% of Mexico’s annual GDP.

The richest man in the world does not forget about his country - the Carlos Slim Foundation annually allocates unprecedented amounts to finance educational, cultural and medical projects in Mexico. He became known as one of the world's largest philanthropists even after his founding in 1995 charitable foundation Telmex in addition to the then non-profit Foundation Carlos Slim, created back in 1986.

In 2007, Slim allocated $4 billion to create health, education and sports institutes under the management of Grupo Carso. Among the merits of the Telmex Foundation is the organization of the amateur sports tournament Copa Telmex, which was included in the Guinness Book of Records as a tournament with the largest number participants. The following year, 2008, Copa Telmex broke its own record, bringing together even more amateur athletes under one roof. At the same time, together with the Carlos Slim Foundation, the Telmex Foundation allocated $250 million for the development of the sports industry in Mexico.

The Carlos Slim Foundation sponsored the creation of the Zumaya Museum (named after the billionaire's wife, Zumaia Domit, who died in 1999), which displays more than 66 thousand priceless treasures of world culture.

These include priceless religious relics, works by Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, as well as coins of Spanish governors. The museum houses the world's second largest (and largest private) collection of Rodin sculptures, including the famous Kiss. In addition, it houses the largest collection of works by Salvador Dali in Latin America.