mafia princess
03-08-08, - 01:15 PM
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Warren Buffett has replaced Bill Gates as the richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine.
In its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people, the magazine estimated Wednesday that Buffett's worth was $62 billion.
Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican telecommunications magnate, came in second with an estimated worth of $60 billion, pushing Gates to third place after 13 years of holding the No. 1 spot.
The magazine estimated Gates's worth at $58 billion.
Buffett's rise to No. 1 was particularly noteworthy, Forbes said, as it came at a time of great financial turmoil and as Buffett has begun to siphon off part of his fortune to charity.
"Even though he is giving away a piece of his fortune each year, the stock of Berkshire Hathaway, the source of Warren Buffett's wealth, has been rising very rapidly," said Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes.
He noted that Buffett's fortune had increased $10 billion in the last calendar year.
Buffett announced plans in June 2006 to give 85 percent of his fortune away, granting it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. Bill Gates serves on the board of Berkshire Hathaway and is a longtime bridge player with Buffett. Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, has also given a substantial amount of his fortune to the foundation.
Buffett, known as the Sage of Omaha, has been praised for his preference for investing in larger companies with easy-to-understand businesses, large or dominant market shares, consistent earnings and strong management.
Buffett started to invest in Berkshire in the early 1960s, when it was a struggling textile maker and took it over in 1965. Since then, he has transformed it into a holding company for more than 50 companies, ranging from Benjamin Moore (paint) and Dairy Queen (ice cream) to Fruit of the Loom (underwear) and Ginsu (knives).
Gates had held the No. 1 spot since 1995, when he unseated Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, a Japanese real estate magnate. Tsutsumi fell off the billionaire's list last year after receiving a suspended prison sentence for falsifying financial statements and insider trading in 2005.
Slim, a former stock market trader, is known for buying struggling companies at low prices and turning them into profit makers.
He built his fortune by privatizing Telmex, the former Mexican state telephone monopoly. América Móvil, a Telmex spin-off, is now Slim's flagship business and the biggest mobile phone company in Latin America.
The collective net worth of the world's 1,125 billionaires rose to $4.4 trillion, the magazine said.
The list of billionaires has almost doubled in the past four years, Forbes said.
In the United States, there were 469 billionaires, worth a combined $1.6 trillion, while the 656 billionaires who live outside of the United States were worth $2.8 trillion.
Russia came in second with 87 billionaires, but Moscow now has the world's largest number of billionaires, the magazine said.
There was also a large increase in India, China and Turkey.
The world's youngest billionaire is Mark Zuckerberg, 23, the founder of Facebook, the social-networking Web site. The magazine estimated his worth at $1.5 billion and said he was the youngest self-made billionaire ever to appear in the Forbes billionaire rankings.
Recent turmoil in the financial markets has taken its toll on the list.
James Cayne, chairman of Bear Stearns; William Pulte, who founded a U.S. home builder, Pulte Homes; and Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks, all fell off the billionaire's list as their companies' stock prices declined.
The decline in the dollar, a trend that Buffett himself has been betting on since 2002, provided a lift to billionaires outside of the United States, particularly because the Forbes list is tabulated in U.S. dollars.
Warren Buffett has replaced Bill Gates as the richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine.
In its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people, the magazine estimated Wednesday that Buffett's worth was $62 billion.
Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican telecommunications magnate, came in second with an estimated worth of $60 billion, pushing Gates to third place after 13 years of holding the No. 1 spot.
The magazine estimated Gates's worth at $58 billion.
Buffett's rise to No. 1 was particularly noteworthy, Forbes said, as it came at a time of great financial turmoil and as Buffett has begun to siphon off part of his fortune to charity.
"Even though he is giving away a piece of his fortune each year, the stock of Berkshire Hathaway, the source of Warren Buffett's wealth, has been rising very rapidly," said Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes.
He noted that Buffett's fortune had increased $10 billion in the last calendar year.
Buffett announced plans in June 2006 to give 85 percent of his fortune away, granting it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. Bill Gates serves on the board of Berkshire Hathaway and is a longtime bridge player with Buffett. Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, has also given a substantial amount of his fortune to the foundation.
Buffett, known as the Sage of Omaha, has been praised for his preference for investing in larger companies with easy-to-understand businesses, large or dominant market shares, consistent earnings and strong management.
Buffett started to invest in Berkshire in the early 1960s, when it was a struggling textile maker and took it over in 1965. Since then, he has transformed it into a holding company for more than 50 companies, ranging from Benjamin Moore (paint) and Dairy Queen (ice cream) to Fruit of the Loom (underwear) and Ginsu (knives).
Gates had held the No. 1 spot since 1995, when he unseated Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, a Japanese real estate magnate. Tsutsumi fell off the billionaire's list last year after receiving a suspended prison sentence for falsifying financial statements and insider trading in 2005.
Slim, a former stock market trader, is known for buying struggling companies at low prices and turning them into profit makers.
He built his fortune by privatizing Telmex, the former Mexican state telephone monopoly. América Móvil, a Telmex spin-off, is now Slim's flagship business and the biggest mobile phone company in Latin America.
The collective net worth of the world's 1,125 billionaires rose to $4.4 trillion, the magazine said.
The list of billionaires has almost doubled in the past four years, Forbes said.
In the United States, there were 469 billionaires, worth a combined $1.6 trillion, while the 656 billionaires who live outside of the United States were worth $2.8 trillion.
Russia came in second with 87 billionaires, but Moscow now has the world's largest number of billionaires, the magazine said.
There was also a large increase in India, China and Turkey.
The world's youngest billionaire is Mark Zuckerberg, 23, the founder of Facebook, the social-networking Web site. The magazine estimated his worth at $1.5 billion and said he was the youngest self-made billionaire ever to appear in the Forbes billionaire rankings.
Recent turmoil in the financial markets has taken its toll on the list.
James Cayne, chairman of Bear Stearns; William Pulte, who founded a U.S. home builder, Pulte Homes; and Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks, all fell off the billionaire's list as their companies' stock prices declined.
The decline in the dollar, a trend that Buffett himself has been betting on since 2002, provided a lift to billionaires outside of the United States, particularly because the Forbes list is tabulated in U.S. dollars.