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Bill Gates Drops To Number 2

A number of readers made sure we know that Bill Gates is apparently no longer the world's richest person. His wealth, estimated currently at $59.2 billion, has been surpassed by that of Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim. Slim, the son of a Lebanese immigrant, runs businesses in a number of industries from Mexico City. Stock in his wireless company, American Movil, recently surged in price by 27%, boosting his net worth to $67.8 billion. Last April Slim passed Warren Buffet, who had long held down the number 2 spot. In this audio Bill Gates says he won't care when he is no longer number 1.

3 of 388 comments (clear)

  1. Talking Points by hedgemage · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    This is more proof that Mexicans are taking jobs that no Americans want, just like the people on Fox News tell me. I mean, what US citizen would want to be the world's richest man!?

  2. Bad numbers? by Alomex · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I question the Forbes/Fortune numbers for two reason:

    Bill Gates has been taking money out of Microsoft since it went public and investing it very well. The Forbes/Fortune numbers imply a paltry return on those investments. I know of at least one other credible source which has pegged his wealth at $80 billion.

    Second, Carlos Slim has long been believed to be the head of an investment syndicate. Earlier on in his career he made statements to that effect. This is called a "name lender" in Mexico. That is someone who is the legal front of a business in actuality belonging to politicians, drug lords or foreigners, or a combination thereof. In the past the standard fee for a name lender was in the 3-5% of paper holdings. However he has also reinvested some of his money so all in all a good guesstimate of Slim's actual personal wealth would be around $10-15 billion.

  3. Re:Sigh by zymano · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Bill Gates used illegal monopoly to take from everyone.

    He crushed all competition. He bought out congress.

    The gov and schools had to use it and therefore had to buy some of his wares.

    Retrospectively i get pissed that our government bought any of that software from our hard earned paychecks paid for any of the evil corporations shit.

    The libraries here still use billshit's os.