Gates dethroned as world's richest man
You knew this was going to happen eventually--Bill Gates prepares to step away from full-time work at Microsoft and suddenly he is on the slippery slope to the poor house.
Google this!
(Credit: Dan Farber)Well, maybe not the poor house, but he has lost his position as the world's richest man, a title he'd held since 1995. The new world's richest man is Gates' friend and investment mogul Warren Buffett, according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people, which was released Wednesday. The magazine estimated Buffett's worth at $62 billion, and Gates' fortune not too far behind at $58 billion. But that doesn't mean he only slipped one notch: Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecoms tycoon, came in second with an estimated worth of $60 billion.
Buffett, who runs a holding company whose stock price closed up Wednesday at $139,000 per share, announced in 2006 that he would give away the lion's share of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At that time his personal fortune was valued at $44 billion. In the past year, Microsoft's stock price has seen fluctuations but is pretty much in the same place it was 12 months ago, while Berkshire Hathaway's stock price has increased more than 25 percent.
Gates plans to step away from full-time work at the software giant in July to focus on his charitable foundation.
There were rumblings last year that Gates' hold on the top spot might be slipping when various media reports estimated Slim's net worth at $67 billion.
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. Before joining CNET News in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers. E-mail Steven. 
have wealth that positively dwarfs Gates and co.
families. There may be people that control *companies* that are
worth more than Bill Gates is worth, but they don't have the same
amount of *personall-owned* wealth as Gates.
BTW, the only Rockefeller on the list this year is #428.
Rockefeller.
If he didn't, he have even more $, but he's learned something that other techie rich haven't,,,it's not what you have, it's what you do with it to help society!
Name ANY person on earth that have donated at much $ to charity...
and now he's buying his way into heaven like Carnegie did after he
made his millions. While I appreciate his donations, I'm not going to
forget how he made those billions. He is definitely not one for
sainthood.
He could give away 99% of his net worth and still be a billionaire, so it is not like he is sacrificing anything.
Shouldn't the richest person in the world come from the richest nation? I'm not saying America is the richest nation...but I know Mexico isn't in the top 20. Hell, they're 64th or something.
How does a person get to be so rich in a country with so many poor, they come to America to earn a wage that they then send back to Mexico?
That's just not right.
Far from it.
Here is the story on this super rich Mexican:
First, he is very intelligent and has a great sense of money. He comes from a rich family and has taken advantage of the corruption in his country to buy the national telecom company by a government decree to "privatize" national companies, which was sold to a company only and made it where he does not have to share it with smaller companies for at least 10 years.
He also has other businesses: real estate, cement, tiles, transportation, food, and much more.
He surely does not have money because the guy that cuts your grass sends money home.
Anyways having cash, income, and assets is preferable anyday to being extremely stock wealthy which is why it's better to be a rockafella then a gate.
If you were BORN into billions of dollars and were an *******, then maybe. But this guy dropped out of college, was middle class. He make good business decisions, and dominated. It is the epitome of the American dream.
- by Arthurmurara October 25, 2008 6:15 AM PDT
- I wish I can have only $1 all what I need in this African would be solved....am not jealousy on those who are rich but just worried about my tomorrow.
- Reply to this comment
-
(24 Comments)Am sorry if I've hurt anyone but that's how I have it in mind.