Jacobus Petrus Bekker’s biography, fact, career, awards, net worth and life story

Intro South African businessman
A.K.A. Jacobus Petrus Bekker
Is Businessperson
From South Africa
Type Business
Gender male
Birth

14 December 1952, Potchefstroom, Tlokwe Local Municipality, Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, South Africa

Age 68 years
Star sign Sagittarius
Residence Cape Town, City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Education
Columbia Business School

Jacobus Petrus “Koos” Bekker (born 14 December 1952) is a South African billionaire businessman, and the chairman of media group Naspers. The company operates in 130 countries and is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It has the largest market capitalization of any media company outside the U.S. and China.

Early life

Koos Bekker was born in Potchefstroom, South Africa on 14 December 1952. He attended Hoër Volkskool Heidelberg and completed degrees at Stellenbosch University, in law and literature, and at Wits University, in law. During his studies in Stellenbosch, he was a hostel boarder of Eendrag Manskoshuis.

Bekker is married to Karen (Roos) Bekker and has two children.

Career

After a few years in advertising, he received an MBA degree from Columbia Business School, graduating in 1984. As a result of a project paper, he, with a few young colleagues, founded one of the first two pay-television services outside of the US. M-Net and its sister companies, such as Multichoice, eventually expanded to 48 countries across Africa. In the 1990s, he was a founding director of mobile communication company MTN. In 1997 Bekker became CEO of Naspers, one of the initial investors in the M-Net/Multichoice group. Naspers bought out the other shareholders. During his tenure, the market capitalization of Naspers grew from about $1.2 billion to $45 billion. His compensation package was unusual in that for fifteen years as CEO he earned no salary, bonus or perks. He was compensated solely via stock option grants that vested over time.

The Forbes 2019 list of The World’s Billionaires ranked Bekker as the 1002nd-wealthiest person in the world, and the fourth-wealthiest South African, with a fortune of US$2.3 billion. In 2020, Bekker was ranked as the third-wealthiest South African by Forbes, with a fortune reported as US$2.4billion.

Foreign investments

Under Bekker, Naspers invested in pay television, mobile telephony and various internet services. The group conducts business in Europe, Africa, Latin America, China, India, Russia, and various smaller countries.

Controversy

Former South African Minister for Communications, Yunus Carrim testified to the Zondo Commission into State Capture that Bekker had played a significant role in irregularly pressuring government officials to protect Multichoice’s effective monopoly over South Africa’s pay-TV sector. Carrim stated that this was done by lobbying government to prevent the opening up and rollout of encryption capacity in set-top boxes. The GuptaLeaks emails indicated that Multichoice paid off Carrim’s successor as Minister of Communications through the Gupta owned ANN7 news network to ensure a favorable decision for Multichoice on encryption.

You May Also Like

Larry Silverstein’s net worth, biography, fact, career, awards and life story

Larry Silverstein net worth: Larry Silverstein is an American businessman who has a net worth of $4 billion. A real estate developer and investor, Larry Silverstein is most widely known as the developer who purchased The World Trade Center on July 24, 2001, a month and a half before the complex was destroyed in the 9/11 attack. He is also the developer for a number of other properties in New York and the District of Columbia. Larry A. Silverstein was born in Brooklyn, New York in May 1931. Silverstein graduated from New York University in 1952 and then went to Brooklyn Law School. With his father and brother-in-law Larry started Silverstein Properties and bought a building in Manhattan. He bought more real estate in Midtown and Lower Manhattan after going out on his own. He sold a building to Coca-Cola in 1983 for $57.6 million, turning a profit of over $46 million. His buildings housed tenants such as the National Urban League and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. He won a bid to construct 7 World Trade Center from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1980. His company won a bid for the lease of the World Trade Center in 2001. The September 11, 2001 attacks led to a dispute with his insurance company regarding his intent to rebuild. He retained the rights to 150, 175 and 200 Greenwich Street, but One World Trade Center would go on to be owned by the Port Authority. Silverstein was a developer of the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. In 2007, Silverstein appeared at a rally in solidarity with construction workers and various other public employees to protest insurance companies Allianz & Royal and Sun Alliance due to what he considered their failure to properly compensate the insured to the tune of about $800 million in myriad insurance claims relating to the September 11th attacks in 2001.
Read More