Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is now The New York Times' largest shareholder

Ranked by Forbes as the world's second-richest person, the business magnate Carlos Slim now owns 27.8 million Class A shares, or 16.8 percent, of The New York Times Co., and is the largest holder of the newspaper company's publicly traded shares.

According to Fox News, Slim, who has garnered an estimated $72 billion through the acquisition of various companies, lent The Times $250 million when the recession brought hard times upon the print media industry. The Times refinanced the loan and paid it back early, but Slim used about $100 million to exercise warrants he received from his investment and bought more than 15 million shares for about half of what they were worth.

The Sulzberger family, through ownership of non-public Class B stock, still controls the company and elects most board members.

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