Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz is dead – economy

Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz has died at the age of 78. This was initially reported by the motorsport specialist magazine late on Saturday evening speed week, a publication of the Red Bull group. The Austrian had succumbed to “a long, serious illness”.

As part of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in the USA, Red Bull’s motorsport director Helmut Marko also confirmed the death of his long-time companion. “We knew that he was in a difficult state of health,” said Marko on Sky: “Now that it has happened, it is still incredible that such a great personality had to resign.” Mateschitz was “unique”, “but he was a modest person”.

Recently there had already been reports that Mateschitz had cancer. The billionaire from Austria had invested a large part of his fortune in sport, especially in Formula 1 and several football teams such as DFB Cup winners RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg.

Worked up by the toothpaste representative

Born in Styria in 1944, Dietrich Mateschitz worked his way up from a sales representative for coffee and toothpaste to become the richest Austrian and one of the richest people in the world.

He succeeded in doing this with the license for the energy drink Red Bull. As an entrepreneur, he set standards in several industries. Starting with the beverage industry: in 2021, more than 9.8 billion silver-blue Red Bull cans were sold worldwide. In professional sports, his brand was initially primarily involved in extreme sports, later also in mass sports, for example with its own professional football clubs. In the media sector, Mateschitz created his own empire, which includes Servus-TV.

In recent years, Mateschitz, who is otherwise very reserved in public, has also made controversial political statements, such as about refugees or a “self-proclaimed, so-called intellectual elite”, and indicated sympathy for Donald Trump.

It’s been quiet around him for the past few months. When Porsche’s entry into the Red Bull racing team and thus into Formula 1 fell through at the last moment, speculation about his state of health was raised for the first time.

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