Gates Rival Carlos Slim Buys OLPCs, Loses CompUSA
Carlos Slim, Bill Gates’ primary rival for the title of richest man in the world, has put in an order for 50,000 XO laptops to distribute in Mexico. The XO, also known as part of the One Laptop Per Child program, is considered a threat to the computing establishment, so this could be a move by Slim, normally a telecom guy, to threaten Gates where the Bill-man is king.
Slim is also the guy who invested as much as two billion dollars in CompUSA over the last decade, a huge blunder of a business decision. CompUSA is closing down completely over the next month or two, shuttering all of its stores after two decades of service. I bought a great computer for under $40 the last time they had a liquidation sale, so watch closely for good deals (and don’t get fooled by disingenuous liquidators who jack up the prices and add a “10% off” sticker).
Two months are left before the next billionaire rankings are compiled, and I predict it’ll be neck-and-neck between Gates and Slim. Slim pulled ahead months ago, after the last rankings (so it wasn’t official), and since then his stocks have been mostly flat, some even down, while Microsoft stock has soared. Slim could be number one, he could be behind Gates, or they could be too close to call. I’m excited to see the next rankings.
OLPC photo by Air Force One, CompUSA photo by kalebdf, under CC license
UPDATE: Looks like Microsoft is developing a version of Windows XP and Office that can be run off an SD card, partially in order to enable use of XP and Office on the OLPC.
