News
Gates Falls to No. 3 on List of World's Billionaires
- By Gladys Rama
- March 06, 2008
After spending 13 years as the richest person in the world, Microsoft chairman
Bill Gates has dropped to No. 3.
Forbes magazine has reported
that Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett now holds the top spot with an estimated
net worth of $62 billion, an increase of $10 billion from last year.
In second place behind Buffett is Mexican telecom executive Carlos Slim Helú,
whose current net worth of $60 billion is up by $11 billion since last March.
Gates rounds out the top three with an estimated net worth of $58 billion, up
$2 billion since last year.
Some analysts are pointing to Microsoft's proposed takeover bid for Yahoo in early February
as one
of the reasons Gates has lost the top spot. According to Forbes,
Microsoft's stock had been surging by as much as 30 percent late last year,
only to fall by 15 percent after it announced its plans to buy
Yahoo for nearly $45 billion.
Still, Gates isn't likely to be shaken by his drop in the Forbes rankings;
at an online advertising conference in 2006, when he still held the top spot,
Gates told
attendees that he would actually prefer not to be the richest man in the world.
To view Forbes' entire list of the world's billionaires, go here.