Tech Company Executives See Wealth Plunge
Thursday April 5 10:32 AM ET
By Thi Nguyen
<<NEW YORK (Reuters) - If you're disappointed with your investment in tech stocks, here's something that might give you a little comfort -- most tech company chief executives have seen huge declines in their personal wealth.
Microsoft Corp.'s. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) Bill Gates (news - web sites), No. 1 on the Forbes magazine list of the 400 wealthiest Americans in 2000, lost about $39 billion over the last year as his stake in the company dropped in value, according to Kevin Schwenger at Thomson Financial's insiderSCORES.com.
That's twice Ecuador's Gross Domestic Product.
The value of Gates' 700 million shares in the world's largest software maker dropped by roughly half from $79 billion a year ago. Over the year, Gates sold about 4 percent of his holdings, Schwenger said.
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer, lost about $12 billion, more than Kenya's annual GDP (news - web sites).
Amazon.com Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMZN - news) Chief Executive Jeffrey Bezos had the biggest percentage loss in terms of his personal wealth. The 117 million shares owned by the founder of the world's biggest Internet retailer dropped 84 percent in value to a mere $1.2 billion, down from $7.7 billion a year ago.
And who knows what Michael Dell of Dell Computer Corp.(NasdaqNM:DELL - news) had in mind when he was buying 63 million more shares in the personal computer maker he founded, even as the shares fell.
Though his stake in the company increased by 23 percent, Dell still saw the value of his holdings drop by $6 billion, or 41 percent in the last year.
Even Oracle Corp.'s (NasdaqNM:ORCL - news) Larry Ellison, No. 2 on Forbes' list, who sold half of his shares in the company, saw the value of the shares he retained in the world's second-largest software maker reduced by $16 billion, or 61 percent.
Other tech executives who saw their wealth evaporate included Gateway Inc.'s (NYSE:GTW - news)'s Theodore Waitt, who lost $4.7 billion even after selling 13 percent of his shares over the year, and Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news), who lost about $2.2 billion, or 67 percent, of the value of his stock holdings.
The non-tech CEOs did better.
Warren Buffett (news - web sites), Forbes' No. 4 wealthiest American, who recently said he had not bought any technology stocks despite the Nasdaq Composite index declining 67 percent from its all-time record close in March last year, saw the value of his stake in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRKa - news), an investment company, rise 14 percent. That was a gain of $4 billion on the 477,000 shares, or the 30 percent stake, he holds.
Buffett hasn't bought or sold any stock in the company for the last five years.>> |
