Gates, Buffett Top Billionaires Ranking
Thursday March 8, 8:44 pm ET
By Jackie Farwell, AP Business Writer
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett Top Record-Breaking Forbes Magazine's
Billionaires Rankings
NEW YORK (AP) -- What could a Chinese dumpling maker and Mexican
telecom mogul possibly have in common? They're among a record
number of wealthy people who held the title of billionaire over the
past year. The tally of billionaires around the globe reached a
high of 946, their combined wealth growing 35 percent to $3.5
trillion, according to Forbes magazine's 2007 rankings of the
world's richest people.
Gates's fortune rose $6 billion to $56 billion last year, while
Buffett garnered in an additional $10 billion to boost his net
worth to $52 billion.
Starbucks Corp. chairman Howard Schultz and former Disney CEO
Michael Eisner joined the ranks of the world's richest for the
first time, behind new faces Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie,
Canadian co-chiefs of Blackberry maker Research In Motion
Ltd.
Self-made mogul Li Wei, founder of Synear Food Holding, made the
list for the first time along with a dozen other Chinese newcomers.
Her company, one of the country's largest producers of frozen food,
including sweet and meat dumplings, is an official supplier to the
2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
All bets were off for online gambling moguls Ruth Parasol, Russell
DeLeon and Calvin Ayre, who dropped from the list after recent
crackdowns limiting offshore gambling Web sites.
Bumped from the top 20 were the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. heirs, who saw
their company's stock languish, and Michael Dell, founder of
computer maker Dell Inc. Losing billionaire status entirely was
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the once-powerful Japanese industrialist who
first topped the tally in 1987.
Among three Indians in the wealthiest top 20 are Mukesh and Anil
Ambani, feuding brothers who got even richer after dividing their
fortunes in 2005. Mukesh Ambani ranked 14th with a $20.1 billion
fortune, while brother Anil came in four places lower at No. 18
with his $18.2 billion.
