Mexican billionnaire and telecommunications czar, Carlos Slim Helu and his family have acquired 6.4 per cent stake in New York Times Co that publishes the New York Times.

According to a regulatory filing on Wednesday, the stake, valued at $121.2 million, has been acquired through Slim's family-controlled Inmobiliaria Carso SA.

The acquisition of about 9.1 million Class A shares makes Carlos Slim the third-largest investor in New York Times outside of the Sulzberger family, that owns 19 per cent.

Although his intentions are unclear, media reports have quoted him as saying that the investment were not a strategic move into American media but purely ''financial''.

Analysts said Slim may be buying the shares in anticipation that a third party would make a bid for the publishing company, whose largest investor, Harbinger Capital Partners, launched a proxy fight earlier this year for seats on the board, asset sales and more internet investment.

Harbinger raised its stake in the company early last month to almost 20 per cent of the stock outstanding, exceeding the Sulzberger family's 19 per cent. T Rowe Price Group Inc, the second-largest shareholder, had an 11-per cent stake, on 30 June.

Since chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and his family control around 89 per cent of the company's Class B shares, they have the voting rights to elect 70 per cent of the company's board.

The Times print ad sales and circulation has declined steeply and its online advertising is far behind in making up for lost print revenues. The Times, over the past month, has combined sections of the paper to save money.

The company has put up with immense financial pressure to cut its quarterly dividend of 23 cents a share, which has an indicated yield of 6.6 per cent amounting to $132 million a year.

Forbes magazine has named Slim, who owns Telmex Telecommunications that has an almost 90-per cent market share in telephone lines in Mexico, the world's second-richest man  with an estimated net worth north of $60 billion. He also owns América Móvil, which is the largest cellular phone company in Latin America and Grupo Carso SAB.

Slim, heading a group of investors, has also bought out the Mexican government's fixed-line phone company, Teléfonos de México.

He has also made his huge fortune by buying stakes in companies during depressed times and selling them later at a huge profit.

He is also a majority shareholder in CompUSA, had also bought stock worth $90 million in Philip Morris Co., 3 per cent in Apple Computer's stock in 2001, which has skyrocketed over the years.

He is a major shareholder in long-distance carrier – MCI, whose stock he bought in 2004 when the company was in trouble, and made a neat profit when Verizon took over MCI in 2005.

Recently in May 2008, he bought a 1-per cent stake in Independent News & Media Plc, publisher of The Independent in the UK.