Billionaire Carlos Slim is a big financial investor in The New York Times Company, but according to recent financial reports, his stake in the media company is a lot smaller than it used to be – about fifty percent less, to be precise. Earlier in December, Slim's company let go of $250 million in trust securities to various trust funds, with the buyers getting a stake of nine percent in The New York Times Company which will revert back to the company after a period of three months. As the original Bloomberg report on the sale puts it:
"In essence, the billionaire created a trust, pledged New York Times shares to it, locked the shares up for three years, then sold rights to that stock to investors."
In the summer of this year, Slim had a 17 percent stake in New York Times, but following the sale his stake rests at eight percent. For the Times Company's part, a spokesman released a statement on Slim's move and his relationship to the company:
"Carlos Slim became a shareholder of The New York Times Company at a critical time in the company's history. The company today has a strong balance sheet and strongly growing digital revenues. We are grateful for Mr. Slim's confidence and support of the company."
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Slim's financial relationship with The New York Times and the company that owns it goes back to 2009, when he gave the company a loan of $250 million to keep it afloat past the financial crisis at the time. By 2015, he was the company's largest single shareholder when he made another big investment – and even now, after the sale, he reportedly remains the second-biggest, right after investment firm BlackRock.
