Saturday, September 6, 2008, 9:51PM ET - U.S. Markets Closed.
World's Billionaires - #3
Wednesday, March 5, 2008provided by
 |
William Gates III
United States
$58.0 bil
- Harvard dropout and Microsoft visionary no longer the world's richest man.
- Blame Yahoo!: Microsoft shares have fallen 15% since the company boldly attempted to merge with the search engine giant to better fight Google for Internet dominance.
- Gates is preparing to give up day-to-day involvement in the company he co-founded 33 years ago to spend more time focused on his philanthropic endeavors.
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has $38.7 billion in assets, donates to causes aimed at bringing financial tools to the poor, speeding up the development of vaccines (for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis), bettering America's lagging high schools.
- Sells 20 million Microsoft shares every quarter, proceeds going to private investment vehicle Cascade; more than half of net worth now outside of Microsoft.
- Company spent $6 billion to land Web ad company Aquantive last May.
- Would-be rival to Apple's iPod, the Zune, not yet a hit.
- Believes Microsoft's far-flung bets, including 10-year affair with Internet-based television, may soon pay off; says next 10 years will be the "most interesting" in software history.
Copyrighted, Forbes.com. All rights reserved.
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