“One billion dollars in no longer enough. The price of admission to this, the 25th anniversary edition of the Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. The collective net worth of the nation’s mightiest plutocrats rose $290 billion to $1.54 trillion,” Forbes reports.
Forbes’ list of the 400 richest Americans includes:
1. William Gates III – $59.0 billion
2. Warren Buffett – $52.0 billion
3. Sheldon Adelson – $28.0 billion
4. Lawrence Ellison – $26.0 billion
5. Sergey Brin – $18.5 billion
5. Larry Page – $18.5 billion
7. Kirk Kerkorian – $18.0 billion
8. Michael Dell – $17.2 billion
9. Charles Koch – $17.0 billion
9. David Koch – $17.0 billion
11. Paul Allen – $16.8 billion
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16. Steven Ballmer – $15.2 billion
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35. Jeffrey Bezos – $8.7 billion
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48. Eric Schmidt – $6.5 billion
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56. Steven Jobs – $5.7 billion: Hailed as “igod” on magazine cover for advent of iPhone—slickest, most-hyped gadget ever. Black-clad digi-god suddenly a Dark Angel falling to earth. His creation sells a million units in 10 weeks at $600; instant $200 price cut riles disciples. Gets Tinseltown takedown when he tries to muscle Hollywood as he did music biz; NBC Universal pulls shows from iTunes. Result: iFlop for Apple TV. Specter of options backdating still hangs; SEC stops at CFO, new ex-pal Fred Anderson—who blames Jobs. New novel by “FakeSteve” (a FORBES writer) depicts him as narcissistic jerk. Options due in October. Adopted by working-class couple, drops out of Reed College, founds Apple in proverbial garage. Fired 1985. Best revenge: One year later he buys Pixar graphics startup from Star Wars creator George Lucas for $10 million. Sells it to Disney 20 years later for $7.4 billion—with a “B”—thanks to heavenly hit list (Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles). In interim had second coming at Apple 1996. Now Mickey’s largest individual holder, 6.7% stake worth $4.6 billion—6 times more than the value of his 0.6% bite of Apple. Never mind the setbacks. Still coolest tech superstar ever.
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68. Gordon Moore – $4.5 billion
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76. Henry Ross Perot – $4.4 billion
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86. George Lucas – $3.9 billion
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117. Steven Spielberg – $3.0 billion
117. Donald Trump – $3.0 billion
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149. Ray Dolby – $2.7 billion
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161. Mark Cuban – $2.6 billion
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261. Jerry Yang – $1.9 billion
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271. Theodore Waitt – $1.8 billion
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361. Roy Disney – $1.4 billion
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “justified” for the heads up.]
Reading through the bios of the 400 richest, we had the same question as MacDailyNews reader “justified” who asked via email, “Why is only Steven P. Jobs’ bio sensationalized with “Forbes writer(s) take as many jabs as possible in the 116 editorialized words before getting to the actual bio?”
Good question.
