Bill Gates no more richest man
March 11, 2010
News Worldwide  – World news headlines: Mexican mogul Slim turns out as world’s richest person
On Wednesday Forbes magazine released its annual list of the world’s richest people and for only the second time since 1995, Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ name was not at the top.
This year, the title of “World’s Richest” departs to Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim, who has a net worth of $53.5 billion.
Slim, holding company America Movil has a sprawling collection of telecom assets, is the first non-American to be declared Forbes’ richest person since 1994, when Japanese real estate kingpin Yoshiaki Tsutsumi held that honor. (He has since disappeared from the list entirely).
But Slim’s financial edge over Gates is, well, slim, at least by billionaire standards — just $500 million. A $1 increase in Microsoft shares, the compilers of the Forbes list noted at a press conference Wednesday, could send Gates’ net worth ahead of Slim’s.
Also, were it not for his wide philanthropy, Gates would have a net worth in the ballpark of $80 billion, Forbes’ Matthew Miller estimated.
Gates is the world’s second richest person, with a net worth of $53 billion. Warren Buffett came in third this year, with a net worth of $47 billion.
Billionaires’ total net worth increased 50 percent to $3.6 trillion. After sharply toning the preceding year, the total number of billionaires is greater 793 to 1,011, Forbes’ list showed. The number is still lower than the record 1,125 billionaires recorded in 2008.
Not only are there more billionaires than last year, but the ones at the top are even richer than last year. The top 10 billionaires have a combined net worth of $342 billion, up from $254 billion in 2009, Forbes said.
In terms of the international scorecard, the United States still boasts more billionaires than any other country — 403, or nearly 40 percent of all billionaires. New York, similarly, has more billionaires than any city on the globe.
But America’s billionaires have not rebounded from the recession as strongly as other countries’
billionaires.
The United States “is not doing as well as the rest of the world in coming back,” publisher Steve Forbes said.
As U.S. billionaires’ dominance of Forbes’ list wanes, Asian countries are seeing their ranks of billionaires swell, especially China. Mainland China has the second-most billionaires after the United States, overtaking Russia for the first time. Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and India also saw significant upticks in their billionaire tallies.
Elsewhere, Turkey’s billionaire community expanded notably, jumping to 28 members from 13, while Western Europe, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates underperformed by comparison.
As in years past, the Forbes list showed a severe gender imbalance in the world’s billionaire population.
Eighty-nine of the 1,011 billionaires are women. Fourteen of those female billionaires are self-made, including Oprah Winfrey, whose net worth dipped $300 million to $2.4 billion. Half of the world’s self-made female billionaires are from China.
For three years running, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 25, secured the distinction of being the list’s youngest billionaire, climbing to the 212th rung with a net worth of $4 billion.
On the opposite end of the age spectrum is Switzerland’s 99-year-old Walter Haefner, ranked 287th.
The year’s biggest winner was Brazilian minerals magnate Eike Batista, who added $19.5 billion to his net worth in 12 months, enough to catapult him to eighth place on the list, from 61st. Modesty is apparently not one of Batista’s many possessions: He has vowed to become the world’s richest person.
Posted by Angelia Kates · Filed Under World news
2 Responses to “Bill Gates no more richest man”
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