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Every so often, rumors pop up that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is going to buy The New York Times Co., in which he already owns nearly a 7% stake. And then those rumors quickly get stamped down by Slim, but not before making some waves in the stock market. It just happened again today, and Times Co. shares rose as much as 8% as a result, according to Bloomberg: "Almost 6,400 calls to buy the stock changed hands, 35 times the four-week average and five times the number of puts to sell... ...The publisher’s stock rose 26 cents, or 3.4...

Mexico’s Carlos Slim beat Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for the top spot on Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires, becoming the first person from outside the U.S. to lead the rankings in 16 years. The net worth of Slim, 70, who built a telecommunications empire after buying Mexico’s state-run phone monopoly two decades ago, rose $18.5 billion to $53.5 billion. Gates, 54, chairman of Microsoft Corp., fell to second as his net worth increased $13 billion to $53 billion. Buffett, 79, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., was third with $47 billion, a rise of $10 billion. Slim is the...

The Story the New York Times Won't Touch By James Ledbetter Posted Saturday, February 20, 2010 - 12:09pm A little more than a year ago, when the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim increased his stake in the New York Times Company (NYT), I wrote "I pity the Times Mexico bureau chief who has to tiptoe through who is and isn't out of favor with the paper's new sugar daddy." Now we have a very clear example of how the Times treats Slim within its pages; it's not pretty, and the journalistic compromise can be seen well beyond Mexico. For the last...

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu isn't just one of The New York Times Co.'s creditors anymore -- he's now one of their biggest stockholders, according to a Security and Exchange Commission filing Friday. Slim exercised warrants for 15.9 million in Class A shares for a strike price of $6.3572 through his companies Inmobiliaria and GFI, raising his stake in the Times Co. to 16.3% from 6.9% at the time he was approached to loan a substantial sum to the venerable publisher. Slim got the warrants in January 2009 when he lent the Times Co. $250 million. The company said that...

The New York Times must be getting increasingly desperate. The publisher of the Times, Arthur Sulzberger, writes a paean in Time Magazine to Carlos Slim, the billionaire Mexican monopolist who threw the flailing Times a lifeline via a 250 million dollar loan earlier in the year. This is a man who has set back development in Mexico by his monopoly (or near monopoly) of the telecommunications system in that nation. He has been milking his profits for decades, blocking technological development of competitors by using his influence with politicians. The Times has historically derided this type of crony capitalism, especially...

I recently had the great pleasure of meeting Carlos Slim. He had decided to invest in the New York Times Co. and thought it would be a good idea to get to know me and my senior colleagues. It was obvious from the moment we met that he was a true Times loyalist. We had an enjoyable conversation about what was happening in this country and everywhere else in the world. Carlos, a very shrewd businessman with an appreciation for great brands, showed a deep understanding of the role that news, information and education play in our interconnected global society....

Millions of first-time credit card holders remade Mexico in recent years, buying everything from diapers to DVD players on credit and spurring a boom in consumer spending and bank profits. Many now regret it: With interest rates, commissions and fees topping 100 percent a year, delinquencies have soared as the global economic crisis boosts unemployment and leads banks to raise rates even more. Among the unlikely suspects supporting rate reductions is Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who in December called credit card interest rates "unsustainable, and in the majority of cases, unpayable." Slim's own bank, Inbursa, offers a card for preferred...

Sure it’s for a life-saving loan, but the New York Times [NYT] Co.’s decision to do business with controversial Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu is seen by some as a deal with the devil. “He has a mixed reputation on his best day,” Douglas A. McIntyre, editor of 24/7 Wall St., a financial commentary service, said about Slim, one of the world’s richest men. Borrowing money from a man that the Times called a robber baron and a thief in 2007 shows that finding someone to invest in the newspaper “must have been very, very hard,” McIntyre said. Late Monday,...

MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)--Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's decision to loan the New York Times $250 million gives a vote of confidence to a debt-strapped publisher at a time when the financial viability of print is being widely questioned in the age of the Internet. The New York Times Co. (NYT) said Tuesday it will use the money to refinance existing debt, but also continues to seek other financing and will press ahead with cost-cutting measures. Slim's move to expand his involvement with the Times raised some eyebrows given difficulties faced by newspaper publishers seeing double-digit declines in advertising revenue.

New York Times Co (NYT.N) shares fell on Tuesday after the company agreed to a pricey $250 million loan from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim that it will use to repay debt coming due in May. -snip- "Frankly, New York Times should be pleased they were able to get this financing at all, in our view, given all the pressures going against the company," Barclays Capital analyst Craig Huber wrote in a note to investors. "Nevertheless, the interest rate is very expensive on an absolute basis and is not a good sign for peer newspaper companies should they try to follow...

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A Latin American billionaire looks to expand his empire in the United States in a deal that could make him the largest shareholder of The New York Times Co. [snip] "By having a stake in the New York Times, he's basically projecting himself as a powerbroker in this country, regardless of how his investment does," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, a senior associate of the Center For Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. [snip] The Times said Slim would buy six-year notes in the company with warrants that are convertible to common shares. The notes carry...

New York Times Co. reached an agreement under which companies backed by the Mexican telecom investor Carlos Slim will invest $250 million and could boost their holding, helping the New York media company reduce its debt and strengthen its finances. -snip- The notes have what the Journal called a relatively rich coupon of 14.053%

New York Times Co. may be turning to a $US250 million ($372 million) investment from billionaire Carlos Slim as credit markets dry up and the newspaper industry confronts plummeting ad revenue. Slim, the world's second-richest man according to Forbes magazine, is in discussions to buy 10-year notes convertible into common stock in the newspaper company and may receive a special annual dividend as high as 10% on his investment, the Times reported yesterday, citing people briefed on the talks. New York Times has slashed its dividend and is pursuing asset sales to shore up cash. Meanwhile, it's racing to pay...

The New York Times appears to be on the verge of signing a deal with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to invest $250 million in the company. If your last name is "Sulzberger," be concerned. News of Slim's possible investment broke over the weekend, and now the Times itself says an announcement could come as soon as tomorrow. Slim, one of the world's richest people, would essentially be loaning the struggling newspaper a quarter of a billion dollars in exchange for convertible shares paying him high annual dividends. But he would have the right to convert that stock into common shares—and...

The rumors about Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim investing in The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) are heating up. Andrew Ross Sorkin reports that Slim is near a deal to invest up to $250 million in a deal that could be approved by the company's board of directors today. According to Sorkin, "As part of Mr. Slim's investment, which resembles a loan, he is expected to get a special annual dividend, perhaps as high as 10 percent or more on this investment, these people said." What is interesting is that Mr. Slim is not set to receive any control of...

The New York Times Co. is in discussions with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim about investing in the newspaper publisher to help ease its financial problems, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks are ongoing and may yet fall apart but one of the options being discussed is a preferred-stock issue. Under this scenario, the Times Co. would issue Mr. Slim preferred stock, which carries no voting right but pays an annual dividend, in return for his investment. The investment would be similar to a loan. Preferred shares are often convertible into common stock after a defined period. snip...

NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim may invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the New York Times Co (NYT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), giving the ailing U.S. newspaper publisher critical financial help, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday. The Times might give the telecommunications tycoon, who already owns a 6.4 percent stake in the Times, preferred stock with no voting rights, but with an annual dividend.

Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, the world’s second richest man, has become the third largest outside shareholder of the New York Times, after reporting a 6.4 per cent stake worth $127m. The purchase, disclosed in a US regulatory filing on Wednesday, comes months after Harbinger Capital Partners purchased close to 20 per cent of the publisher of the namesake newspaper and the Boston Globe and launched a proxy war for board seats. Arturo Elías Ayub, Mr Slim’s son-in-law and the communications director of Mr Slim’s Carso Group, told the FT on Wednesday that they started buying the stock a...

Excerpt - NEW YORK (AFP) — US financier Warren Buffett has overtaken Bill Gates as the world's richest man, according to Forbes annual billionaire's list, which this year saw Russia, China and India making increasing inroads. Buffett, the 77-year-old chief of the Berkshire Hathaway holding company, saw his wealth jump from 52 billion dollars last year to 62 billion, pushing Microsoft co-founder Gates into third position after 13 years at the top. Mexico's telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu grabbed second place with a tidy nest egg of 60 billion dollars, up from 49 billion last year. ~ snip ~

Excerpt - CompUSA Inc. said it has been sold to Gordon Brothers Group, a restructuring firm that will wind-down the retailer's operations and sell off its assets. Financial terms were not disclosed. Dallas-based CompUSA, which is controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, said its 103 retail stores will remain open and staffed during the holiday season as it works to sell off some stores and its Internet operations. The company has struggled with increased competition and had been looking at stratetgic alternatives. ~ snip ~