Jacobus Petrus "Koos" Bekker (born 14 December 1952) is a South African

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busi ...

businessman, and the chairman of media group

Naspers Naspers Limited is a South African multinational internet, technology and multimedia holding company headquartered in Cape Town, with interests in online retail, publishing and venture capital investment. Naspers' principal shareholder is its ...

. The company operates in 130 countries and is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

and

Johannesburg Stock Exchange JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is located in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, after it moved from downtown Johannesburg in 2000. In 2003 ...

. It has the largest

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

of any media company outside the US, China and India. As of April 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$2.3 billion.

Early life

Koos Bekker was born in

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom (, colloquially known as Potch) is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooi Rivier ( Afrikaans for "pretty ri ...

, South Africa in 1952. He attended Hoër Volkskool Heidelberg and completed degrees at

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

, in law and literature, and at Wits University, in law. He holds an MBA from

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one of the oldest bus ...

, New York and an honorary doctorate from

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

Career

After a few years in advertising, he received an MBA degree from

, 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 M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

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 ''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March ...

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. MultiChoice has denied these allegations, noting that Carrim confirmed that he had no personal knowledge of any fraud or corruption on MultiChoice's part. The Constitutional Court has held that Government's digital migration policy is not centered around individual players in the broadcasting industry and that the policy decision to dump decryption capability in government subsidized DTT set top boxes was in the best interests of the poor and the broader public. ''[Electronic Media Network Limited and Others v e.tv (Pty) Limited and Others'' 2017 (9) BCLR 1108 (CC).

Personal life

He is married, with two children, and resides in Cape Town, South Africa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bekker, Koos Columbia Business School alumni Living people Afrikaner people South African businesspeople Place of birth missing (living people) South African chief executives 1952 births South African billionaires