Carlos Slim -- World's Richest Man 2009

Who is the world's richest man?  You were close if you thought Warren Buffet or Bill Gates.  It's actually a man named Carlos Slim, whose net worth is over $60 billion mostly made from his investments in Mexican telecom, Telmex, which owns 90% of the telephone lines, and Telcel, which operates 80% of the cell phones.

Recent recession woes have left Warren Buffet's Berkshire portfolio in a world of hurt.  Particularly his larger holdings of American Express (down 64% in 2008) and Wells Fargo (down 50% in 2008) which respectively make up 5% and 10% of Berkshire's portfolio.  Bill Gates' net worth continues to drop along with shares of Microsoft which are trading at levels not seen since 12 years ago.  

Like Buffet, Carlos Slim likes to buy distressed companies.  In 1997, he bought 3% of Apple stock for $17/share just after Steve Jobs returned as CEO and was on board when Apple returned to dominance.  Carlos Slim is at it again dropping $150 million into distressed bank Citigroup and $250 million into debt-ridden newspaper New York Times.  Both of these stocks have been trading below $6 recently so only time will tell if these investments will pay off.  

And yes I do own Citigroup at $6/share, but I'm still looking for a good reason to buy New York Times...