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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.
He did pass Bill for a day at most, but then Bill passed him again on the same day.
I just watched the 'complimentary' download from Xbox Live Marketplace of Austin Powers. It looks like Bill is now on par with Robert Wagner as 'Number 2'. Coincidence? I think not.
In other news, Slim is now (apparently) Dr. Evil. Go figure.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Meh, let me know when someone surpasses Rockefeller. In today's dollars, he would have been worth around $200 billion. And you wanna talk about monopolies, predatory pricing, and anti-trust? The Sherman Antitrust Act was DIRECTED at Rockefeller's Standard Oil.
Oh, I guess since it was over 100 years ago, no one cares anymore.
Telmex and Microsoft use the same monopolistic practices, Gates and Slim are not very different.
They both may be monopolies, but there IS quite a difference. The difference is that Telmex *IS* a competitive and efficient company. If it wasn't for Slim's investment in telecom infrastructure, we mexicans would still be calling the state-driven phone company to complain that our 24K modems disconnect too often. I do remember those times... Slim practically saved the country from stagnating in the information era.
Microsoft is an artificial monopoly, reeking with planned obsolescence and lack of innovation. In contrast, Telmex already gives us the videophone service.
Slim was one of the first traders in mexican stock market (before he was stock operator in usa) but really become mega-rich after getting TelMex from the goverment (at that time the monopolic, state owned telephony company) from former mexican presindent Carlos Salinas (due to corruption)
Talk about, how not to sell a state monopoly: just making it private, instead of dividing it to form a competitive market. To this day méxico suffers from that.
America-Movil its the celular telephony company from Grupo CarSO (Carlos Slim keiretsu that started with TelMex)
Today CarSO participates in the telephony of most countries in latinamerica, and soon also in spain
Both Gates and Slim are unfair market monopolist... because the ones in power dont care
LOSE!! It's LOSE! The only way you could 'loose' money is by untying it, or making it less tight.
Gah. Other than that your post is correct.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Windows ME
Windows 2000 pre-SP3
XP pre-SP1
Most of the first-party XBox 1 titles save for Halo, which wasn't really first-party
MS SQL Server
Internet Explorer 5
Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 7
Frontpage
Microsoft Messenger
Windows Messenger
Live Messenger
Office 97 (barely within the last decade, but it was truly horrible)
Windows Mail
Outlook Express
Microsoft Mail
Netmeeting
MSN Explorer
Microsoft Sharepoint Server
Microsoft Works
Microsoft Money
Virtual PC
IE For Mac
Microsoft Anti-Virus
Office Assistant
Visual FoxPro
Microsoft Binder
Hotmail
And don't forget blunders like PlaysForSure, Zune, etc.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
has Slim put into philanthropy? To anyone who found this question relevant (I was almost expecting "none" - and thus making the Gates foundation a very easy explanation on the #1 move), Forbes says the following (plus a lot of other interesting stuff) of the man's new project:
"Lately Carlos Slim has taken up a particular interest in philanthropy, a pursuit he had neglected for most of the years he was building his businesses. He formed a foundation 23 years ago and funded it with a few million, and it has done little since then. A year ago Slim infused it with $1.8 billion; in the fall he pledged to donate up to $10 billion to the foundation in the next four years to fund health and education programs."
It is somehow good to see the world's richest doing this kind of stuff. Of course, it's not like they couldn't afford it, but still.
ISO certified == THX certified
"We hate him because he produces crappy software and uses unethical techniques to promote it."
"There are lots of guys out there running software companies that produce crappier software than MS and are less ethical. Since they aren't rich, however, nobody gives a shit."
Take Carlos Slim himself.
Try to find any semblance of Gate's extraordinary philanthropy and you won't find anything close.
Mr. Slim hails from a country where a good portion of the population lives in bronze age conditions, another big chunk in the middle ages, and so on. By the time you reach 20/21st century standards, you are left with less than the population of Chicago (out of 100+M). I think it is extraordinary that a country like Mexico produces such absurd amount of bi/millionaires - which few acknowledge, and then people are amazed by all the immigrants trying to come to the US. I always felt Bill Gates was an unfair target for most of the attacks he received. I think Gates is a goober, but more people should get the negative attention he gets.
A FEW extra billion? Since 2000, he has given away 29 billion and he has been quoted as saying that he intends to give away 95% of his wealth. He also inspired Warren Buffet to give away another 30 billion. He's done a lot to help those who need it. I can't stand microsoft products in general but I still respect Bill Gates for what he is doing with his foundation.
Well, it has never been successfully tested.