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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:
 36,916
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 36,916
Copyright © 2005 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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About Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is Sr. Vice-President of SYS-CON Media & Events. He is Conference Chair of the all-new International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series, of the International Virtualization Conference & Expo series, of AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo series, and of the long-running SOAWorld Conference & Expo series. He's founder of Cloud Computing Journal, Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal and other leading SYS-CON titles. From 2000-6, as first editorial director and then group publisher of SYS-CON Media, he was responsible for the development of all new titles and i-Technology portals for the firm, and regularly represents SYS-CON at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of "Power Panels with Jeremy Geelan" 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.