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Google Founders Close Net-Worth Gap With Bill Gates

Are Bill Gates' Days As The World's Richest Man Finally Numbered?
By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
March 11, 2005 12:00 AM EST
Reads:
 42,909
691 people from 47 countries with a combined fortune of $2.2 trillion feature in the annual Forbes magazine list of the richest people in the world. Bill Gates ($46.5BN) heads the list, as he has done for over a decade. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen ($21BN) is still in the top ten, in a list that introduced 131 new billionaires including Martha Stewart ($1BN).

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, at 31 and 32 years of age, are two of only 29 billionaires under 40. Last year they were 552nd on the list, with $1BN apiece, but this year they moved up to no. 55 with $7.2BN.

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen is still in the top ten, in a list that introduced 131 new billionaires including Martha Stewart.

In its accompanying editorial, Forbes magazine noted that the U.S. "is now home to an astonishing 341 billionaires, just shy of half the world's billionaire population."

"Bill Gates keeps his throne for another year," the Forbes editorial continued, "but with Microsoft stock flat-lining, his days as the world's richest man may be numbered."

Somehow it doesn't seem likely that anyone will be betting on it though. Not even Larry Ellison ($18.4BN) or Michael Dell ($16BN).

Published March 11, 2005 – Reads 42,909
Copyright © 2005 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is President & COO of Cloud Expo, Inc. and Conference Chair of the worldwide Cloud Expo series. He appears regularly at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of Cloud Expo's "Power Panels" on SYS-CON.TV.

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Most Recent Comments
Richie rich 03/11/05 09:30:55 AM EST

How about the chief architect of MSFT the one everyone forgets, the Hungarian...he's been a billionaire now for a while
LarryE 03/11/05 03:29:33 AM EST

%% Anyone remember if Larry Ellison was in the top ten last year? Where's Scott McNealy - nowhere even among 691 names?? %%

Ellison was no. 6 in 2003.
Humble Pie 03/11/05 03:23:15 AM EST

In a company-conducted "interview" with McNealy posted on Sun's Web site back in December, the bombastic McNealy was unusually contrite, saying Sun had been guilty of hiring too many people and signing too many leases during the boom years of the 1990s; underestimating the longevity of 32-bit microprocessors for use in Web servers; paying too much for certain acquisitions; not offering Solaris bundled with x86 hardware seven years sooner.
2004 03/11/05 03:06:33 AM EST

Anyone remember if Larry Ellison was in the top ten last year? Where's Scott McNealy - nowhere even among 691 names??
perspectiveNY 03/11/05 03:05:04 AM EST

Apparently New York has the highest concentration of billionaires, followed by Moscow and San Francisco.
Chicken Feed 03/11/05 03:03:43 AM EST

No wonder Allen was able to donate $13.5 million last year for research into extra-terrestrial life.