Forbes Billionaires List: Old Media Magnates Still Outrank Internet Moguls
This story was written by Tameka Kee.
Despite taking an $18 billion hit, Bill Gates is the richest person in the world again. Microsoft's co-founder topped Forbes' 2009 billionaires list, after slipping to third place in 2008. The pummeled economy thinned the ranks of the world's billionaires by 30 percent (oh the horror!) to just 793 this year, and for all the hype around online media and advertising, not one new media exec broke into the top 25 (though *Google* co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin came close). In contrast, a number of old media mogulsincluding newspaper magnatesremained among the world's richest:
Dot-com billionaires:
- #26 Sergey Brin and Larry Page: both worth $12 billion, they each lost about $4 billion over the past 12 months; they're among the youngest entrepreneurs to make the list
- #68 Jeff Bezos: worth $6.8 billion; Kindle sales helped *Amazon.com* ring in the holidays, but Bezos still lost money; the company's stock is down 30 percent since August
- #119 Eric Schmidt: Google's CEO is less rich than his underlings, but still worth about $4.4 billion; took a hit this year, since Google's stock is also down 30 percent over the past 6 months
- #156 Pierre Omidyar: eBay's founder is worth $3.6 billion, though the company's stock is down 55 percent over the past six months
- #296 Mark Cuban: Maverick blogger (and owner) is worth $2.3 billion
- #522 Omid Kordestani: another Googler; Kordestani spearheaded the company's $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube; he's worth $1.4 billion
- #601 David Filo: Yahoo's co-founder is worth $1.2 billion; of course that's down, given the pounding Yahoo's stock has taken over the past year
- #647 Meg Whitman and Jerry Yang: both worth $1.1 billion, Whitman, eBay's former CEO, is eyeing a career in politics; Yahoo's co-founder and former CEO Yang has returned to his role as Chief *Yahoo* (still not sure what that means)
Some technology and traditional media names you might know after the jump.
- #3 Carlos Slim Helu: lost $25 billion this year; most recently bailed out the NYT, but made most of his money in telecommunications in Latin America
- #17 Michael Bloomberg: founder of financial news service Bloomberg, L.P.; worth $16 billionhe's one of the few execs that's actually worth more this year than last year; has a tough road ahead as New York City's mayor, given the turmoil on Wall Street
- #25 Michael Dell: worth $12.3 billion, he rejoined Dell as CEO last year to help the computer giant regain its focus; Q4 profits were down 48 percent, and given the saturation of computers and laptops in the market, there's not much relief in sight
- #29 Steve Ballmer: worth $11 billion, Microsoft's CEO saw his fortune dip a bit this year, but the company still turned in a 26 percent profit in 2008
- # 132 Rupert Murdoch, Donald Newhouse and Samuel Newhouse, Jr.: all three are worth $4 billion; Murdoch's media empire is being battered on all fronts, Dow Jones' stock is down 70 percent just over a year after his buyout; meanwhile Conde Nast execs Donald and Sam Newhouse both lost about half their fortunes amid the obliteration of the print publishing industry
- #178 Steve Jobs: Apple's ailing ambassador is worth $3.4 billion; the company's stock is down 50 percent in the past month, despite strong iPhone sales
- #234 Oprah Winfrey: worth $2.7 billion, Winfrey is worth more this year; production company Harpo is slowly making the transition from old media to digital
Photo Credit: Tracy_O
By Tameka Kee