Editing Walter Haefner (section)

{{Short description|Swiss businessman and thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Walter Haefner
| caption = 
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1910|9|13}}
| birth_place = [[Zürich]], Switzerland
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2012|6|19|1910|9|13}}
| death_place = 
| occupation = Businessman: automobiles/computers<br />Racehorse breeder
| children  = Eva Maria Bucher-Haefner<br /> [[Martin Haefner]]
}}

'''Walter Haefner''' (13 September 1910 – 19 June 2012) was a Swiss businessman and a [[thoroughbred]] racehorse owner and breeder in Ireland.

As a young man Haefner went to work in the auto industry as an employee of the Swiss division of [[General Motors|General Motors Corporation]]. He eventually moved to England where he acquired an automobile franchise before returning home to open a [[Volkswagen]] dealership. Recognizing the important role a computer could play in his growing chain of dealerships, in 1957 Haefner became one of the first in Switzerland to import an [[IBM]] system for business use. This led to his 1964 creation of Automation Center A.G., a computer services company in [[Zürich]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/2000/06/20/feat.html|title=Cashing in on Computer Software in Switzerland and the U.S.|last=Orol|first=Ron|work=[[Forbes|Forbes.com]]|date=20 June 2000|access-date=2010-10-08}}</ref>

In 1976, he expanded operations to the US and, after merging his company with [[Russell Artzt]]'s and [[Charles Wang]]'s publicly owned software company, [[CA Technologies|Computer Associates International, Inc.]], in 1987, Haefner was CA's largest individual shareholder until his death. He continued to own [[AMAG Automobil- und Motoren]], a highly successful Swiss automobile dealership chain. Until his death, at age 101, he was the oldest person worth more than a billion dollars.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Age_40.html|title=The World's Billionaires (sorted by age)|page=40|work=Forbes.com|date=10 March 2010|access-date=2010-10-08}}</ref>

Through horse racing, Haefner met art dealer [[Daniel Wildenstein]], who was himself a successful horse breeder. In the mid-1960s, Haefner acquired his first paintings from Wildenstein's New York branch.