Friday, July 06, 2007

Carlos Slim overtakes Bill Gates

The Mexican financial Web site Sentido Comun has reported that 67-year old Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest person in the world.

The Web site reported that Slim’s wealth had passed Gates following the superior performance of Slim’s telecommunications firm, America Movil. The Web site also stated that Slim’s lead over Gates amounted to billions of dollars.

"The difference between their two fortunes is around nine billion dollars in favor of Slim,” the financial Web site reportedly stated, owing Slim’s gain to a 26.5 percent rise in the shares of America Movil during the second quarter.

In addition to America Movil, Slim, the son of Lebanese immigrants, controls the INBURSA financial group and the Grupo Carso industrial firm.

In April, Forbes magazine pegged Slim’s wealth at $53.1 billion and Gate’s at $56 billion.

Among Slim’s most notable investment decisions is the one he make in 1997 when he bought 3 percent of Apple Computer at $17 a share shortly before the company launched its iMac computer. Twelve months later, Apple’s shares exceeded $100.

© 2007 Associated Press

2 comments:

jeff shek said...

I don't understand what you mean by this.

How and why would he purchase AAPL at $17 a share in 1997? Along with this, how in twelve months did it hit over 100?

Did you mean 12 years? If so, wouldn't that be 2009?

While that's great that he's one of the richest men in the world today, he can never compare to Gates and his philanthropy. Perhaps, that's the opposite of what one would expect in a capitalistic society we have today, but Gates and Buffet have really impressed other "richest men and women" in the world.

Mike said...

I'm checking Apple's stock prices on Yahoo. It traded as low as 12.75 (pre-split adjusted) in 1997. The iMac was announced in May 1998 and shipped in August 1998. AAPL stock hit 100 on 11/30/99. So it was more like 15 months after the iMac shipped that the stock hit 100.