{"id":493549,"date":"2023-05-27T13:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=493549"},"modified":"2023-05-27T13:04:27","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T11:04:27","slug":"how-m-net-and-multichoice-cofounder-koos-bekker-made-his-billions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/investing\/493549-how-m-net-and-multichoice-cofounder-koos-bekker-made-his-billions.html","title":{"rendered":"How M-Net and MultiChoice cofounder Koos Bekker made his billions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Koos Bekker is one of South Africa\u2019s most well-known billionaires. Today, he has a net worth of R45 billion ($2.4 billion), according to\u00a0Forbes<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Bekker cofounded M-Net\/MultiChoice in 1985 \u2014 the first pay-television service outside the United States.<\/p>\n

He is best known for his tenure as the CEO of Naspers, a multinational media and technology company based in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Naspers was founded in 1915 as an Afrikaans newspaper publisher. Under Bekker\u2019s leadership, it transformed into an Internet investing giant and became Africa\u2019s most valuable company.<\/p>\n

Bekker was instrumental in Naspers\u2019 investment in Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent in 2001, which has since become one of the most successful investments in corporate history.<\/p>\n

Naspers holds a significant stake in Tencent, worth billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

The company has also maintained its presence in local news, owning Africa\u2019s largest publisher of magazines and newspapers \u2013 Media24. Naspers also owns Takealot, South Africa\u2019s largest online retailer.<\/p>\n

What set Bekker apart from other CEOs at the time was his willingness to embrace innovation and a global, long-term outlook for his company.<\/p>\n

These traits allowed Bekker to benefit from the internet revolution in the 1990s and 2000s and invest in Tencent.<\/p>\n

His management style was also unique, as Bekker was known for his hands-off approach. This style helped him attract and retain talented executives who could take charge of the business\u2019s day-to-day operations while he had the freedom to focus on strategic planning.<\/p>\n

One of Bekker\u2019s most interesting \u2014 and riskiest \u2014 approaches to business was his compensation structure.<\/p>\n

In 1999, Bekker made the unusual decision to forego his salary, bonuses, and other perks and instead elected to be compensated through stock options.<\/p>\n

This tied his personal wealth directly to the success of Naspers and its investments and aligned his interests with those of shareholders.<\/p>\n

While a risky move at the time, it has since become one of the smartest business decisions in his career.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Bekker\u2019s share options became increasingly valuable as Naspers\u2019 investments in companies like Tencent paid off. In 2015, he exercised some options to purchase shares in Naspers.<\/p>\n

This risky decision in 1999 to be paid in Naspers shares made him one of the richest people in South Africa.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Bekker stepped down as Naspers CEO. He now serves as chairman and remains an important shareholder in the company.<\/p>\n

Aside from his stake in Naspers, Bekker has many other interests that have allowed him to achieve his wealth.<\/p>\n

Bekker owns several wine estates in South Africa, including the well-known Babylonstoren in Stellenbosch.<\/p>\n

He also owns other properties across the country and abroad, including a\u00a0multi-million-pound<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0estate, The Newt, in Somerset in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Bekker is also known for his philanthropy, with conservation and education projects lying close to his heart.<\/p>\n

\n

This article was first published by Daily Investor<\/a><\/strong> and is republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0MultiChoice’s fight against Netflix and Disney+<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forbes lists Koos Bekker’s net worth as R45 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341123,"featured_media":462811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80335],"tags":[35,1649,5016,475],"class_list":["post-493549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-headline","tag-koos-bekker","tag-m-net","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493551,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493549\/revisions\/493551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}