ALL,
Monday July 14 1:40 PM EDT
Biggest Billionaire is Bill Gates - Forbes
NEW YORK (Reuter) - Microsoft Corp. co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates' software empire has made him the richest person in the world for the third year in a row -- and his fortune has doubled,
according to Forbes magazine.
Gates' net worth is $36.4 billion, the highest ever recorded in Forbes. The 11th annual tally of the 200 biggest billionaires is in the July 28 issue of the business magazine, which appears on newsstands Monday.
The 41-year-old tycoon's fortune is second to that of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of the oil-rich kingdom of Brunei, whose net worth Forbes put at $38 billion, but higher than that of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd
($20 billion) and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II ($16 billion with the Royal Collection including the crown jewels, $350 million without), among other ``kings, queens and dictators.''
Forbes said it excluded royal families and heads of state from its list of the 200 wealthiest because their wealth derives more from political heritage than from economic effort. Its roster of the super-rich also exluded people who inherited their wealth and do not actively make money or manage it.
Taking second place on the list of the wealthiest 200 with a net worth of $27.6 billion were the widow and children of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton, who died in 1992.
Super-investor Warren Buffett was third with a net worth of $23.2 billion. Hong Kong's Lee Shau Kee, who made his fortune in real estate, was next with $14.7 billion.
Fifth place went to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, with $14.1 billion. Tied for sixth with $12.3 billion were the Haas family, who own jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co., and three other Hong Kong real
estate magnates: brothers Walter, Thomas and Raymond Kwok. Forrest Edward Mars Sr. and his two sons and daughter -- who own candy giant Mars Inc. and other brand names -- were seventh with a net worth of $12 billion.
Rounding out the top 10 ware German retailer brothers Theo and Karl Albrecht and their family ($11.5 billion) and Tsai Wan-lin and his family ($11.3 billion), who control Taiwan's largest construction and insurance companies.
Well-known U.S. billionaires include publishing powers Samuel I. Newhouse Jr. and Donald Newhouse, with $9 billion; media entrepreneur John Kluge ($7.2 billion); financier brothers Jay and Robert Pritzker ($6 billion); Viacom Inc. chief Sumner Redstone ($3.4 billion), and designer Ralph Lauren ($2.4 billion).
Outside the United States, the better-known billionaires include Italian media magnate and politician Silvio Berlusconi ($4.9 billion); Canada's Charles Bronfman, heir to the Seagram Co. Ltd. fortune ($3
billion); Virgin Group President Richard Branson ($2.1 billion), and the Rothschilds ($1.5 billion).
Forbes said further information on the biggest billionaires would be availabe via its Web site: forbes.com.
Forbes also put Gates at the head of its list of ``power elite,'' the 10 people it considers to be the most creative and successful in business in the world.
Also on that list: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who invests in out-favor companies, with a net worth of $11 billion; Li Ka-shing of Hong Kong, whose businesses include real estate and telecommunications ($11 billion) and Robert Kuok of Malaysia ($7 billion), who has a multinational hotel company and the Coca-Cola bottling franchise for China. Kuok, dubbed ``the world's shrewdest businessman'' by Forbes is the subject of the issue's cover story.
Also making the power elite were Mexico's Carlos Slim Helu ($6.6 billion), Latin America's richest man; German software tycoon Dietmar Hopp ($3.6 billion); Japanese software and publishing entrepreneur Masayoshi Son ($3.5 billion); French luxury goods conglomerate head Bernard Arnault ($3.1 billion); Russian oil, cars and publishing Boris Berezovsky ($3 billion), and international media mogul Ruper Murdoch ($2.8 billion).
Last on the list? Greek shipping magnate Spiros Latsis, with a net worth of $2.8 billion.
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The American dream is still alive and and well--a billionare not by birth.
Ibexx
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