“Slim’s fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year,” Miller and Kroll report. “That massive hoard of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who had held the title of world’s richest 14 of the past 15 years.”
MacDailyNews Note: Last year Forbes’ top three were: Gates at $40 billion, Buffett at $37 billion, and Slim at $35 billion.
Miller and Kroll continue, “Gates, now worth $53 billion, is ranked second in the world… Buffett’s fortune jumped $10 billion to $47 billion… This year the World’s Billionaires have an average net worth of $3.5 billion, up $500 million in 12 months. The world has 1,011 10-figure titans, up from 793 a year ago but still shy of the record 1,125 in 2008. Of those billionaires on last year’s list, only 12% saw their fortunes decline.”
MacDailyNews Note: Steve Jobs is ranked #136 on Forbes’ list with $5.5 billion. Here’s Forbes’ horrible blurb: Following months of rumor and speculation, cultish king of the iGeeks presented the highly anticipated iPad in January; ten-inch, multi-touch computer intended to fill gap between smartphone and laptop. Delighted: nerds everywhere. Scared to death: newspaper and magazine publishers. Also unveiled new iBookstore and iBooks application in direct challenge to Amazon’s Kindle; several book publishers have committed to content agreements. Apple shares up 100% in past 12 months. Reed College dropout founded Apple in 1976. Revolutionized music industry with iTunes, iPod. Best investment: bought Pixar from George Lucas in 1986 for $10 million. Created string of hits (Finding Nemo, Toy Story); sold to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock. Today is Disney’s largest shareholder; stake worth $4.2 billion. Reportedly cooperating on a biography with author Walter Isaacson.
MacDailyNews Take: The “cultish” and “nerds” crap, we expect, but we’d like some proof that newspaper and magazine publishers are “scared to death” about iPad.
Full article here.
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