Gates falls to world's third richest on Forbes list

by Dan Nystedt

March 6, 2008 —

Microsoft Chairman Bill
Gates fell to third place on Forbes'
2008 list of the world's richest people after 13 years at number one, due
largely to Microsoft's bid for Yahoo,
Forbes said Wednesday.

The magazine, which puts out annual lists of the world's richest people, blamed
Gates' decline to the slide in Microsoft shares from the day before the company
announced a US$44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo, Jan. 31, to the day Forbes calculated
stock prices into its rich list valuations, Feb. 11.

Had Microsoft shares not declined so much, Gates would have been in a close
race with investing mogul Warren
Buffett for the top spot on the list, Forbes said.

Buffett took over as the world's richest man this year with an estimated $62
billion fortune, while Mexican communications industry leader Carlos
Slim Helu came in second with $60 billion, Forbes said. Gates' fortune was
valued at $58 billion.

Microsoft helped put Mark
Zuckerberg, the youngest ever billionaire on Forbes' list. The founder of
popular social networking Web site Facebook is worth $1.5 billion, according
to the magazine, based on a calculation involving Microsoft's $240 million investment
last year for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.

Zuckerberg ranked 785th overall on the Forbes list.

Other American technology industry leaders toppled down the rich list. Larry
Ellison, CEO and founder of Oracle, fell to 14th place on the Forbes list,
from 11th last
year, while Microsoft co-founder Paul
Allen tumbled to 41st place from 19th place last year.

Google founders Sergey
Brin and Larry
Page retained their titles as the richest young people on the Forbes list,
coming in at $18.7 billion and $18.6 billion, respectively. They ranked 32nd
and 33rd overall.

The remaining top 10 richest people in the world are mainly in heavy industry
and commodities, according to Forbes. The next three richest men are all from
India. Fourth place, Lakshmi
Mittal, is a steel magnate, while fifth place Mukesh Ambani is in petrochemicals
and his brother, sixth place Anil
Ambani, is in power and communications. Oleg Deripaska of Russia made much
of his fortune in aluminum, putting him in the ninth spot.

Retail titans took two of the top 10 spots. Ikea founder Ingvar
Kamprad of Sweden took seventh place on the list, while the founder of German
discount store Aldi, Karl Albrecht, took tenth. Indian real-estate developer
KP Singh came in eighth on the list.

IDG News Service