Anonymous ID: 8e7885 Jan. 25, 2021, 6:18 a.m. No.12707147   🗄️.is 🔗kun

From its inception in 1888 until the start of the 21st century, De Beers controlled 80% to 85% of rough diamond distribution and is a monopoly.[5] Competition has since dismantled the complete monopoly, though the De Beers Group still sells approximately 29.5% of the world's rough diamond production by value through its global sightholder and auction sales businesses, an effectual monopoly, as this still allows it to control prices, inflating them dramatically.[6][7] By volume, De Beers has slipped to the second largest producer with a market share of 22.3%, trailing Russian diamond miner ALROSA.[8]

 

The company was founded in 1888 by British businessman Cecil Rhodes, who was financed by the South African diamond magnate Alfred Beit and the London-based N M Rothschild & Sons bank.[9][10] In 1926, Ernest Oppenheimer, a German immigrant to Britain and later South Africa who had earlier founded mining company Anglo American with American financier J.P. Morgan,[11] was elected to the board of De Beers.[12] He built and consolidated the company's global monopoly over the diamond industry until his death in 1957. During this time, he was involved in a number of controversies, including price fixing and trust behaviour, and was accused of not releasing industrial diamonds for the U.S. war effort during World War II.[13][14]

 

In 2011, Anglo American took control of De Beers after buying the Oppenheimer's family stake of 40% for US$5.1 billion (£3.2 billion) and increasing its stake to 85%, ending the 80-year Oppenheimer control of the company.[15]