Gets the People Going

afootballreport:

By Nick Dorrington

Divide et impera. Divide and conquer. The strategy implemented by many a great leader over the centuries, from Caesar to Napolean to Stalin, is now being put to work in the competitive world of Mexican television rights by Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man and owner of the telecommunications giants Telmex and América Móvil.

Earlier this month, América Móvil purchased a 30% stake in Grupo Pachuca, whose holdings include the Mexican top flight clubs C.F. Pachuca and Club León. The purchase was met with enthusiasm from supporters expecting Slim to lavish similar fortunes to those a myriad of less-wealthy Russian Oligarchs, Arab Sheikhs and Asian businessman have on other teams across the globe.

But such expectations were unrealistic. Slim’s sporting loves are baseball, boxing and motor racing. His investment into these clubs was not an act of vainglory, a pursuit of celebrity or praise. No, Slim’s motives were purely business orientated, the purchase his latest attempt to shake up the Mexican television market’s dominant axis of Televisa and TV Azteca.

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