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Slim Doubles Down on The NYT

Don Irvine  —   May 7, 2010
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Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim must see a future in newsprint as he has reportedly doubled his stake in the ailing New York Times.

From the New York Post

MEXICAN billionaire Carlos Slim is wheeling and dealing his way through the media world.
According to people familiar with the matter, Slim is sinking more money into The New York Times Co., doubling his current 7 percent stake, while also visiting the offices of Newsweek, the Washington Post-owned newsweekly that was put up for sale earlier this week.
The expanded investment in the Times makes Slim its largest independent shareholder, after the previous biggest shareholder, Phil Falcone’s hedge fund Harbinger Capital, sold 4.75 million shares last month.
Slim already has deep ties to the Times as a result of his $250 million, high-interest loan to the company in January 2009 and the warrants he holds that enable him to buy up to 18 percent of the company’s common stock.
The Times declined to comment. Slim did not respond to a request for comment.
Slim has taken over failing businesses before and truned them around but investing in the news business may be one of his riskiest bets yet.  The Times will likely be a survivor in some form but Newsweek is destined to be a money pit and Slim would be wise to avoid that publication at all costs.
UPDATE:
From FishbowlNY
Carlos Slim, whose (alleged) recent visit to the Newsweek prompted questions at to whether he was among those expressing an interest in buying the struggling paper, has denied that this is his intent.
In fact, Slim’s spokesperson (and son-in_law), Arturo Elias, says there is no truth to this morning’s NY Post report that Slim 1) visited Newsweek or 1) upped his stake in the New York Times Co.
I’m glad they cleared that up. For awhile there I thought Slim had lost his mind.


About the author
Don Irvine
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.



 
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