Have you
ever wondered who earns from your calls, messages and megabites spent through
smart phones? If you lived in Latin America the answer would be simple – Carlos Slim Hel. This 75-year old man became
known in Serbia 4 years ago when he bought tender documentation for the
acquistion of
Telekom Srbija but he gave
the purchase up very quickly. With almost USD 70 billion, the third richest man
in the world according to Forbes, immediately
after Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, let his sons manage the most profitable
companies while he holds the position of president of honour.Slim is active in communications field, real
estate, air traffic, media, technology, finance and trade and he own also Grupo Carso conglomerate which comprises
America Movil, operating in 18 countries of north and south America and has 265
milion users and Telmex.A year ago, Slim increased the stake at
Telekom Austria from current 27% can block decisions of minority stakeholders
while he needs 3% more to become majority owner of the company. Today, a
foundation was named after him as well. In ’60, Carlos Slim studied construction at
the National independant university in Mexico. With only 25, he started
building the foundation of his future kingdom, Grupo Carso. It is said that it
is not appropriate how someone earned his first million and Carlos Slim in the
sixties already had USD 40 m. In the ’80,
he was considered a successful businessman in different industries and in the
times of Mexican debt crisis and nationalization of banking system when state
finance almost paralyzed, he and his group actively invested and acquired
companies.
In early nineties, his group acquired Mexican
telecommuncations Telmex together with partners Telekom France and Southwestern
Bell Corporation (SBC) and started new era of enterpreneurial development at
the global level. Until Telemex invested more than USD 27,5 billion in
telecommunication structure of Mexico, and USD 33 billion at the level of
entire Latin America.He started expanding his influence on other
continents in 1999, when he became the
owner of telecommunications operators in USA. "America Telecom",
holding for "America Movil" was set up in 2000 and it comprised
ownership over telecommunications operators in Brazil, Argentini, Gvatemala and
Ecuador, then Columbia, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile, Hondurasu and El Salvador. Cooperation
with giant Microsoft which resulted in successful platform
"ProdigyMSN" started then. Slim stepped into the European continent with the acquisition of the stake at Austrian Telekom, which he sees as a "platform for expansion in mid and east Europe". Telekom Austria
operates in Slovenia, Poland, Bulgaria, native Austria and in our parts, in
Croatia and Macedonia it is available through VIP mobile. Carlos Slim showed also significant interest
for media so a month ago, he became an ower of 16,8% stake at New York Times and he is setting
up with Larry King digital Ora TV, after the leave of this world-famous popular
showman from the American TV CNN.