This is an accepted version of this page Carlos Slim Helú (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkaɾlos esˈlin eˈlu; - esˈlim -];[1] born 28 January 1940) is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist.

However, the core of his fortune derives from telecommunications, where he owns América Móvil (with operations throughout Latin America) and the Mexican carrier Telcel and ISP Telmex, a state-run-gone-private company which maintained a virtual monopoly for many years after Slim's acquisition.

[5] In 1965, profits from Slim's private business and investment ventures reached US$400,000,[26] enabling him to start the stock brokerage house Inversora Bursátil.

Companies in the Mexican construction, soft drink, printing, real estate, bottling and mining industries were the initial focus of Slim's burgeoning business career.

[10] He later expanded his business operations and commercial activities by venturing into numerous industries across the Mexican economy including auto parts, aluminum, airlines, chemicals, tobacco, cable and wire manufacturing, paper and packaging, copper and mineral extraction, tires, cement, retail, hotels, beverage distributors, telecommunications and financial services (Slim's Grupo Financiero Inbursa sells insurance and manages mutual funds and pension plans for millions of ordinary Mexicans).

Many of these corporate acquisitions were financed by the income-generating revenues and cash flows derived from Cigatam, a Mexican tobacco distributor that he purchased in the economic downturn that hit Mexico during the early 1980s.

Capitalizing on the bevy of potential business opportunities that could crop up and be exploited through this political change motivated Slim and his conglomerate Grupo Carso to acquire Telmex, a landline telecommunications operator from the Mexican government.

[19] To ultimately realize his further commercial business ambitions and reap the material benefits that would eventually transpire through the acquisition of Telmex, Slim acted in concert later in 1990 with the French telecom operator France Télécom and the American telco Southwestern Bell Corporation to purchase the landline telecommunications service provider from the Mexican government, when the opportunity for Slim to purchase the telco presented itself and materialized when Mexico began privatizing its national industries at the turn of the 1980s.

[21] Slim was an early investment backer in Telmex, where the concomitant income-producing cash flows and revenue-generating profits of the telecommunications provider eventually formed the bulk of his private fortune.

Slim made headlines within the American business scene in 2003 when he began purchasing large stakes in a number of major US retailers such as Barnes & Noble, OfficeMax, Office Depot, Circuit City, Borders, and CompUSA.

Concurrently, Telmex also spun off its international cellular phone division for a $15 billion listing of América Móvil SA on the New York Stock Exchange.

[37] Telmex has taken numerous stakes of various international cellular telephone operators outside of Mexico, including the Brazilian ATL and Telecom Americas concerns, Techtel in Argentina, and others in Guatemala and Ecuador.

[36] In 2005, Slim invested in Volaris, a Mexican airline[21] and founded Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en América Latina SAB de CV (using the acronym "IDEAL"—roughly translated as "Promoter of Development and Employment in Latin America"), a Mexican construction and civil engineering company primarily engaged in not-for-profit infrastructure development.

[44] In 2012, Slim sold the broadcast rights for the Leon games to the American terrestrial television network, Telemundo, the cable channel Fox Sports in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, and the website mediotiempo.com.

[48][49] In July 2013, Slim's company América Móvil invested US$40 million in Shazam, a British commercial mobile phone-based music identification service for an undisclosed share of ownership.

América Móvil partnered with the company to aid its growth into advertising and television and help the audio recognition service expand in Latin America.

[50][51] In November 2013, Slim invested US$60 million in the Israeli startup Mobli, a company that deals with connections between people and communities corralled according to different interests.

In December 2013, Slim's private equity fund, Sinca Inbursa, sold its stake in the Mexican pharmaceutical company Landsteiner Scientific.

Labor representatives boycotted attending the OIAG supervisory board meeting for 12 hours criticizing the lack of explicit job guarantees.

[53] In January 2015, Grupo Carso publicly launched Claro Musica, an online music service that is a Latin American equivalent of iTunes and Spotify.

[13] It was not uncommon for Lebanese children to be sent abroad before they reached the age of 15 to avoid being conscripted into the Ottoman Army, and four of Haddad's older brothers were already living in Mexico at the time of his arrival.

[5][10] By 1922, Julián's net worth reached $1,012,258 pesos, shrewdly diversified among a vast array of various cash flow-producing assets that included large swathes incoming-producing investment-grade real estate, a multifarious assemblage of privately-controlled businesses, and stocks.

[21] As a prominent businessman and wealthy investor who remained a reputable pillar within the Lebanese Mexican community, Julian was known for his shrewd business acumen and his astute knack when making investments during bad economic cycles (which occurred frequently in Mexico).

[67] According to The Wall Street Journal, Slim credits part of his ability to "discover investment opportunities" early to the writings of his friend, futurist author Alvin Toffler.

[4] In December 2012, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Carlos Slim Helú remained the world's richest person with an estimated net worth of US$75.5 billion.

[72] On 5 March 2013, Forbes stated that Slim was still maintaining his first-place position as the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$73 billion.

[82] Slim's immense wealth has been a subject of controversy, because it has been amassed in a developing country where average per capita income does not exceed US$14,500 a year, and nearly 17% of the population lives in poverty.

[85][6][8] According to Celso Garrido, economist at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Slim's domination of Mexico's conglomerates prevents the growth of smaller companies, resulting in a shortage of paying jobs, forcing many Mexicans to seek better lives in the U.S.[86] Slim was criticized by the Dutch minister of economic affairs, Henk Kamp, in 2013 for attempting to expand his telecommunications empire beyond the Americas by América Móvil's buy-out offer to KPN, a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications operator.

When asked to explain his sudden increase in wealth at a press conference soon after Forbes annual rankings were published, he said, "The stock market goes up ... and down", and noted that his fortune could quickly drop.

Together with Fundación Carlos Slim Helú, Telmex announced in 2008 that it was to invest more than US$250 million in Mexican sports programs, from grass-roots level to Olympic standard.