Mother: Linda Helú Atta
Marriage: Soumaya Domit Gemayel (1966-1999, her death)
Children: Carlos, Marco Antonio, Patrick, Soumaya, Vanessa, Johanna
Education: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 1961
Other Facts:
Nicknamed “El Ingeniero” (the engineer).
His father was a Lebanese immigrant, as were his maternal grandparents.
His father died when he was 13.
Bought shares of the Banco Nacional de Mexico at 12.
Is a huge baseball fan.
Has been criticized for monopolizing markets in Mexico.
Founded the Telmex Foundation, Carlos Slim Foundation and Historic Center of Mexico City Foundation.
Timeline:
1965 – Acquires a bottling company, Jarritos del Sur, and incorporates a stock brokerage, Inversora Bursatil. Also establishes real estate, construction and mining companies.
January 1966 – Incorporates his real estate company, Inmobiliaria Carso.
1970s-1980s – Expands and diversifies his holdings in real estate, industry and commercial enterprises.
1980 – Slim combines all of his business interests into Grupo Galas, known today as Grupo Carso.
1982 – During Mexico’s financial crisis, Grupo Carso acquires the controlling interest in dozens of companies.
1990 – Grupo Carso goes public and its companies merge. Grupo Carso acquires Telmex, the newly denationalized telecommunications monopoly, in a venture with Southwestern Bell, France Telecom and several Mexican investors. Carso Global Telecom is created as Telmex’s holding company. Slim also acquires mobile telecom company Radiomovil Dipsa, a subsidiary of Telmex, and renames it Telcel.
1994 – Founds Museo Soumaya, a non-profit art museum named after his wife.
March 14, 1994 – Slim’s cousin, financier Harp Helu, is kidnapped. The billionaire is released in June after the family agrees to pay an undisclosed amount, which may have been an almost $30 million ransom.
1995 – Founds the Telmex Foundation.
1996 – Grupo Carso splits into Carso Global Telecom, Grupo Carso and Invercorporacion.
1997 – Purchases Mexico’s arm of Sears Roebuck. Telmex USA begins operation.
1997 – Slim undergoes successful open-heart surgery. Begins handing over day-to-day operations of his businesses to his children.
2000 – Acquires the ailing CompUSA for nearly $800 million.
2005 – After acquiring a 13% stake in MCI, Slim sells off stake to Verizon Communications Corp. for $1.1 billion.
March 2007 – Slim pledges $6 billion to his charitable foundations.
May 2007 – Founds the Carlos Slim Health Institute, a non-profit that aims to make health care affordable and accessible in Latin America, through his Carlos Slim Foundation.
December 2007 – Unable to turn CompUSA around, Slim sells it to a restructuring firm. The retailer shuts down most of its stores and its remaining assets are sold off.
2008-2009 – Buys a nearly 7% stake in the New York Times, and invests $250 million into the company via a six-year lending agreement.
2010-2013 – Ranked the world’s richest man by Forbes four years in a row.
2011 – Opens a new Museo Soumaya facility in Mexico City. The museum is designed by Slim’s son-in-law, architect Fernando Romero.
January 14, 2015 – Slim exercises warrants to acquire 16 million more shares of the New York Times, making him the company’s largest individual shareholder, with an almost 17% stake.
