Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will be financially supporting Larry King’s launch of a “huge” online initiative, according to TheWrap. When the Hollywood online mag broke the story late yesterday afternoon, they had few details on the new venture, but King’s lawyer Bert Fields had confirmed “that there have been discussions in which I participated.”
Arturo Elias Ayub, Slim’s chief spokesman, told Reuters this morning that his boss and the former CNN show host are in “advanced talks” that could lead to a media venture between the two and that they had been working on the plan for a few months.
He wouldn’t give more details, but the venture could be announced in the first quarter of this year.
So how did they connect?
King interviewed Slim on one of his last shows on CNN in December of 2010. A few months earlier – in September – Slim had invited King to participate a speaker and guest of honor during the conference “México Siglo XXI”, organized by the tycoon’s Telmex foundation.
Slim, who tops Forbes’ list of richest people in the world with a net worth of $74 billion, owns more than a 7% stake in the New York Times. He first bought more than 9 million shares in 2008, at a time when the NYT was going through a financial crisis.