NYT Patron Carlos Slim World’s Richest Man, Says Forbes

With a net worth of $53.5 billion, Carlos Slim Helu is the richest man on the planet, according to Forbes‘ annual rankings, published last night.

For all the talk of the death of newspapers, Slim’s substantial holdings in The New York Times actually served him well, rising 187% in the last year. Okay, so the stock did go from penny status at under $4 a year ago to nickel status at $11.69 today, but it still outperformed the S&P 500′s 50% return by a whopping margin.

Slim beats out Bill Gates ($53 billion) and Warren Buffett ($47 billion) for the top spot. You have to skip down a ways, past numerous members of Wal-Mart’s Walton family, to get to the next U.S. media name; New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg ranks 23rd with $18 billion.

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