América Móvil

Stock performance

History

América Móvil was spun off from Telmex, Mexico's former state telephone monopoly that businessman Carlos Slim acquired control of during its 1990 privatization, in order to separate and expand the group's fast-growing wireless operations across Latin America. Under Slim's direction the company expanded aggressively through acquisitions across the region during the 2000s, building the leading mobile-network position in most Latin American countries and turning a domestic Mexican telecom asset into a genuinely continental operator.

Business model

América Móvil provides mobile and fixed-line telecommunications, broadband internet, and pay-television services across Mexico, Brazil, and most of Latin America, along with operations in parts of the United States and Europe under various brands including Claro and Telcel. Its scale across so many national markets gives it significant negotiating leverage with equipment suppliers and lets it spread network-investment costs across a large regional subscriber base.

Market position

América Móvil is the largest mobile-telecommunications operator in Latin America by subscribers, holding leading market positions in Mexico and many other countries across the region, and is one of the largest telecom companies in the world by subscriber count. It competes with Telefónica, AT&T's Latin American operations, and various local carriers across its many national markets.

Country impact

América Móvil, and the broader Carlos Slim business empire it anchors, has historically held such a dominant position in Mexican telecommunications that Mexican regulators designated it a 'preponderant' market player subject to special regulatory restrictions aimed at encouraging competition. It remains one of the largest and most influential companies in Mexico and a significant source of the Slim family's global business prominence.