Billionaire Ken Thomson, Canada’s richest person whose worldwide business empire once included the Canadian newspaper chain founded by his father, has died at age 82, the Globe and Mail reported today.

BROWN THOMAS owner Galen Weston’s $1 billion bid for Selfridges Plc, a luxury-goods retailer that competes with Harrods, may cost Canada’s second-richest man as little as $5 million of his own money.