Posted on 10/08/2006 12:32:53 PM PDT by dennisw
MEXICO CITY, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, the third-richest tycoon in the world, may sell his loss-making U.S. retail business CompUSA, a director of one of Slim's companies said on Thursday.
Jorge Serrano, director of investor relations of Slim's conglomerate Grupo Carso (GCARSOA1.MX: Quote, Profile, Research), told Reuters one company had shown interest in Dallas-based CompUSA, which sells computers, televisions and other electronics products.
"It is being evaluated," Serrano said of the possible sale of CompUSA, which was bought by a unit of Carso in March 2000 for $800 million. "Different alternatives are always being analyzed to try to make operations more efficient."
Carso was the parent company of CompUSA up to Slim's decision to spin off the U.S. retailer several years ago. He and his family, along with other Mexican families, now own CompUSA, which has more than 225 stores across the United States.
CompUSA struggled in the mid to late 1990s with lower computer prices and increased competition and was snapped up by Slim, who is known for his Midas touch and turning loss making companies into cash generators.
But analysts say CompUSA has not lived up to expectations and Slim and other family members are looking to unload the company, which Serrano said has been closing stores, improving its marketing techniques and contracts with suppliers.
"The company is fine but it could be better," Serrano said. "If you look at the numbers we have not been able to increase sales as ideally would have been the case. Meanwhile the competition has grown."
CompUSA was founded in 1984 and employs around 14,000 people
No it isn't. China has a large, dynamic, powerful economy even if, in per capita terms, it is still relatively poor. That's pretty self evident. Sorry kid.
The problem is the wealth is so highly concentrated with the racist light skinned spaniards. There is very little opportunity for anyone else.
...and that's why you see SO many US expatriates living in both Mexico and China.
LMAO.
I haven't bothered to confirm your financial stats, largely because I don't care whether they're correct or not.
I *do* know that they're irrelevant to everything that makes a country liveable.
Have a great afternoon.
Aside from Anna-Maria Armbuzzeri (I think I spelled that wrong), the heir to the Corona fortune (and married to U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza) who is BASQUE, not Spanish... and a Spanish emigre who started Wal Mart in Mexico, the wealtiest familes tend to be of partial Lebanese or European-Jewish descent... heavily mixed with your standard Mexican mutt family.
You're joking... right? Did you know that over a million Americans live in Mexico (according to the best State Department estimate)? The numbers in China are lower but fast increasing. These people aren't mowing lawns, but many are there doing business.
And that's because they are in a corrupt and racist country.
If Mexico is so fabulous, then why is the entire population trying to emigrate (illegaly) to the U. S. of A.?
Beyond that, exactly what point (or points) is your diatrible moving toward making?
The VAST majority of Americans living in Mexico, just to be clear, are either:
1. Retirees who like the weather and the low cost of living
2. Workers whose parent companies relocated to Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor.
Hardly what I'd call fodder for the Visitor's Bureau pamphlet, but no worries--you'll fit in fine there.
The point I'm trying to make is that it is inane for so-called conservatives to rail against another perfectly-good country, when their only exposure to it consists of a best-forgotten bachelor party in Cancun or Tijuana and a mis-ordered Whopper screwed up by an illegal immigrant with a third grade education. That's like me (a foreigner) judging the US from my first 24 hours in the USA, which largely consisted of an other-than-pleasant stay in the Port Authority Terminal in New York. The entire population of Mexico is not trying to get into the US; if you spent any time there, you'd realize that the country, while obviously developing, has a dynamic and advanced economy and vast wealth.
I'd go to Mexico in a heartbeat...and I'm not talking about Cozumel or Cancun. I'd love to hang out in a village for a week eating blue corn fungus and drinking Tequila.
That said, the immigration issue is huge, made more maddening by a Mexican President who at best is reluctant to help, and at worst, complicit.
Who could hate a country whose namesake dice drinking game (It's called Mexican, if you've never heard of it.) is so much fun?
Enjoyed the discussion, but it's getting late and I'm about to turn into a calabaza...LOL.
Really? Have you ever heard of the "brain drain" from India, China, Taiwan, Russia, and Argentina? Why is it that the South Florida real estate market has been so hot due to wealthy Latin Americans buying houses, often as their primary residence.
Ever hear of Albert Einstein? Roberto Goizueta, etc.? Bright and successful people who left for the U.S.
"Slim" and "Fox" don't sound like Spanish names to me. Neither does "Hayek."
They don't, but from what I can find on the internet, most of the light skinned Mexicans are spanish.
You are aware that Slim and Hayek are respectively Lebanese and half Lebanese (Christians)
there are more billionaires in Mexico per capita than any other country in the world. It is just their common folk are dirt poor and run to this country for work, etc.
the people risking life and limb to come here, are dirt poor and have no education. They are also the Mestizo, lower mexicans that the mexicans don't want.
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