Richest man

Chapter 42 The Americas: Kenneth Thomson
——Kenneth Thomson: Canada's version of Murdoch Kenneth Thomson is a media tycoon in Ontario, Canada, whose news publishing empire spans North America and Europe.Over the years, he and his family have firmly occupied the top spot in the list of the richest people in Canada. In 179, he and his family ranked 15th in the list of the world's richest people listed by "Forbes" with assets of [-] billion US dollars.

Acquisition, Acquisition, Reacquisition

Kenneth Thomson's father, Roy Thomson, was born in 1894. He left school at the age of 14 and started to earn a living.During the Great Depression, Roy set out to build his media empire.He runs a small radio station in a remote rural town in Ontario, Canada. In 1934, he bought a local news paper called Timmins for 6000 yuan.

Roy's newspaper business grew bigger and bigger like a snowball. By the early 50s, he already owned about 30 local newspapers in Canada. In 1953, he went abroad and bought his first British newspaper, The Scotsman. Roy moved to Scotland in 1954 and began to fully develop his career in the UK.At this time, the number of newspapers he owned in Canada was already the largest in the country.

In 1957, Roy successfully obtained a license to operate a commercial television station in Scotland, Scottish Television, through bidding.Two years later, he bought into Kemsley Group, which is publicly listed in the UK, and consolidated the UK's national and local newspapers under the umbrella of The Sunday Times.He later merged The Sunday Times with Scottish Television and The Scotsman.

In the early 60s, Thomson (UK) Publishing Group was established. In 1964, Roy received a hereditary title from the Queen of England as Lord Fleet Thomson.Throughout the 60s, Roy Thomson bought hundreds of newspapers in England and the United States.In addition to news publishing, Thomson Group is also involved in energy and tourism. Roy created Thomson Travel in 1965 by acquiring travel companies and British Airways. In 1971, he participated in the development of oil and gas resources in the UK North Sea.In the same year, Thomson Newspapers Ltd. was established and publicly listed in Canada.So far, Thomson Newspapers has developed into a transnational world-class newspaper group.

When Roy died in 1976, his son Kenneth Thomson became Lord Thomson II and took over the family's newspaper kingdom.That year, Kenneth Thomson bought the Globe and Mail, Canada's only national newspaper at the time.The following year, Thomson Newspapers' circulation in the United States surpassed one million copies for the first time.

In the late 70s, Kenneth Thomson expanded his publishing business in the United States through the acquisition of publishing houses, while he realigned his business in the UK. In 1976, Thomson International Group Co., Ltd. was established, headquartered in Toronto, with major business divisions in the United Kingdom and the United States. In 1980, Thomson Group's newspaper circulation in Canada exceeded 100 million copies for the first time.

After entering the 80s, Kenneth Thomson began to acquire a large number of publishing houses, market research companies and financial, educational and medical information providers in North America, Europe and Australia. In 1989 he merged Thomson Press Limited with Thomson International Group Limited to form the Thomson Group of Companies.The number of daily newspapers owned by the group ranks first in Canada and the United States for a long time. In 1989, it reached 124 in the United States alone, and its total circulation ranks sixth among American newspaper groups.

sell, sell, resell

In the 80s, Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch entered the UK and the US and bought hundreds of newspapers, periodicals and radio and television companies. In the 90s, another Canadian media giant, Condra Black, went from Canada to the United States, bought hundreds of newspapers, and competed with Murdoch in the United Kingdom, Israel, and Australia at the same time.But Thomson gradually withdrew from the old battlefield.

In 1981, Kenneth Thomson sold "The Times" and "Sunday Times" to Murdoch, which had been losing money for years and had constant labor disputes, and stated that Murdoch promised not to reduce the 195-year-old newspaper in any way. newspaper style. In 1995, he sold another 19 regional dailies in Canada to Black. In 1998, Thomson Travel Group also sold for $20 billion. In 1997, Richard Harrington became the chief executive of Thomson Group. He assisted Kenneth Thomson to gradually shift his business focus to the global legal and financial information industry and electronic printing industry, and then established an electronic information kingdom.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, many publishers in Europe and the United States have realized that new technologies not only represent challenges to the traditional publishing industry, but also inject new vitality into the relatively quiet publishing field for many years.Many enterprises have begun to gradually adjust their own business strategies, shifting traditional print publishing to electronic publishing.Kenneth Thomson had already prepared in this regard. In February 2002, Thomson Group surprisingly announced the sale of all its newspaper assets in the United States and Canada to concentrate on the development of electronic publishing and information services.The market responded enthusiastically to Kenneth's decision, and Thomson's stock price has therefore been greatly improved.

In 2003, Thomson Group sold its 20% stake in Bell Global Media Company to Woodbridge Company for US$2.79 million, and since then it has completely broken away from the most deeply rooted "Globe and Mail".The strategy of exiting the newspaper market proposed by Kenneth in 2000 has initially achieved its goal after more than two years of implementation.

Experts believe that Kenneth resolutely separated the newspaper department from the Thomson Group, marking his determination to make the Thomson Group shift from the consumer market to the B2B information field in the next few years.Today, when the digital age has come, his strategic decision is undoubtedly very far-sighted.

The richest man who likes to collect

Kenneth Thomson managed well, and his news publishing kingdom has survived in Canada for many years, and together with several other news corporations dominated the market, so much so that the Canadian Royal Newspaper Commission complained in the 1980-1981 industry report: " Newspaper competition...does not exist in Canada anymore.” Canada’s newspaper industry has a monopoly of more than 70%, second only to Australia, and ranks second in Western developed countries, among which Kenneth Thomson’s power is impressive Not to be underestimated.

Kenneth Thomson's operation is characterized by high profit margins. In the 80s, the profit margin of Thomson Newspaper Group was as high as 30%, far exceeding other competitors.Kenneth famously said in response to the Royal Commission: "We run a business group, we just happen to be in the newspaper business."

At present, the market value of the Thomson Group exceeds US$170 billion, and the Thomson family controls most of the company's equity.The group's annual sales are nearly 80 billion US dollars. It still has newspaper, TV broadcasting and tourism businesses in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. An online professional database service company operating in 46 countries around the world.According to the group's annual report, the company's revenue from legal information services (including legal, taxation, accounting, intellectual property rights, etc.) currently accounts for more than 40% of the group's total revenue, and revenue from financial information services accounts for about 20%. And health information services accounted for about 10% of the revenue, and other aspects accounted for about 30%.At present, the publishing institutions owned by the group mainly include: 23 financial publications and services, 13 biological science publications, 7 legal information publications and services, and 8 reference book publications and services.

In 2002, Kenneth Thomson let his son David Thomson succeed him as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Thomas Group.But Kenneth himself remains busy, constantly advising the company on development despite his 80s, while keeping busy with his collecting hobby.

Not long ago, Kenneth donated huge sums of money to expand the Ontario Museum of Art, Canada, and donated a total of 2 art collections worth 2000 million U.S. dollars to the galleries of the Art Museum.One of the most valuable pieces is one of the world's three most expensive paintings, the masterpiece "The Killing of the Innocents" by Rubens, a master of the Belgian Flanders School of Painting, in 1610. Sotheby's auction house bought it with a bid of 2002 million US dollars; the other two works that are also among the top three most expensive paintings in the world are Van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" and Renoir's "Garrette Moulin". $7700 million and $8250 million, respectively.David Thomson, 7810, is said to be, like his father, an avid art collector while running the Thomson Group.Thank God for creating diamonds and women at the same time.

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