Bill Gates no longer richest: Fortune magazine

[OhioChick]

New York, Aug 07: Microsoft founder Bill Gates has lost his claim as the world's richest person, ceding the title to Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, according to Fortune magazine.

By most calculations, Gates has been considered for at least the past decade to be the wealthiest person alive, but strong performance by Slim's holdings on the Mexican stock exchange in recent months had pushed Gates into second place.

"By our calculations, the 67-year-old Slim has amassed a 59 billion dollar fortune, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July," Fortune magazine reported in its latest edition, due to hit newsstands this week.

"This number puts him just ahead of perennial number one, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose net worth is estimated to be at least 58 billion dollars.
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=387502&ssid=51&ssname=World&sid=BUS&sname=LATEST-BUSINESS-NEWS

Poor Thing.

[Botany]

1. and in @ # 3

Skinner



He made his wealth selling hearts @ Valentines Day on the "Internets."

His worth is between 38 - 42 billion,

[NancyBreen]

2. At least Gates Foundation is trying to help the world health

problems and is aiding in disease research that a lot of countries can't fund for themselves.

[OhioChick]

3. Yes, That Good Old Gates Foundation.....

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation

Published January 7, 2007


Ebocha, Nigeria - Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb.

An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Justice squirmed in his mother's arms. His face was beaded with sweat caused either by illness or by heat from the flames that illuminate Ebocha day and night. Ebocha means "city of lights."

The makeshift clinic at a church where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/la-na-gatesx07jan07,1,2987071.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

<snip> In addition, The Times found the Gates Foundation endowment had major holdings in:

Companies ranked among the worst U.S. and Canadian polluters, including ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical Co. and Tyco International Ltd.