Bill Gates richest; Many Hedge fund managers among Forbes Top 400 List

Date: Sunday, September 23, 2007
Author: Hina Deshpande, Topnews.in

Billionaires in United States have made more money this year as per the Forbes list of 400 wealthiest Americans. While there are some new entrants to the list, the top positions are mostly held by familiar faces. The entry vault was raised by US $300 million.

It happened for first time in 25 years that all the members on the list are billionaires. However, the list was dominated by males with only 39 women who were among the top 400.

Bill Gates managed to remain on first position for 14th year with a net worth of US $59 billion. Warren Buffett was second with assets more than US $52 billion.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google have made it to top 10 in the list. Their estimated wealth is more than US $ 18.5 billion for each as the Google stock touched all time high in stock markets. Larry Ellison, CEO Oracle Corp., was among top ten with $26 billion in his pocket. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen dropped to 11th rank with assets worth US $16.8 billion.

Among the top positions, were mostly the owners of Technology companies like Google, Microsoft and Oracle. The assets of billionaires comprising the list have gained more compared to the general stock movement in US stock markets.

The Walton family was kicked out of top 10 this year. The founders of Wal-Mart retails stores have been among top 10 wealthiest since year 1989.

Despite subprime-mortgage crisis, many private equity and hedge fund managers made it to the list. Hedge fund manager John Arnold (33) became the youngest person on the wealthiest list. Another hedge fund manager, Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors LLC, stood at No. 47 with an estimated wealth of US $6.8 billion.

Biggest gainer during the year was casino king Kirk Kerkorian who increased his assets by $9 billion to become the 10th most wealthy person.