Did Yahoo Bid Cost Bill Gates “Worlds Richest” Title?
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is no longer the world’s richest man, according to Forbes magazine. The new leader: Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett, worth an estimated $62 billion. Gates fell to third place — after Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu — and is now worth an estimated $58 billion. Not that Gates cares, but did Microsoft’s (MSFT) $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo (YHOO) cost him the title? Forbes: [Gates] is up $2 billion from a year ago, but would have been perhaps as rich — or richer — than Buffett had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! at the beginning of February. Microsoft shares fell 15% between Jan. 31, the day before the company announced its bid for the search engine giant, and Feb. 11, the day we locked in stock prices for the 2008 World’s Billionaires list. More than half of Gates’ fortune is held outside of Microsoft shares.
