Gates, Buffett Top Billionaires Ranking
Thursday March 8, 8:44 pm ET
By Jackie Farwell, AP Business Writer
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett Top Record-Breaking Forbes Magazine's Billionaires Rankings
NEW YORK (AP) -- What could a Chinese dumpling maker and Mexican telecom mogul possibly have in common? They're among a record number of wealthy people who held the title of billionaire over the past year. The tally of billionaires around the globe reached a high of 946, their combined wealth growing 35 percent to $3.5 trillion, according to Forbes magazine's 2007 rankings of the world's richest people.
Gates's fortune rose $6 billion to $56 billion last year, while Buffett garnered in an additional $10 billion to boost his net worth to $52 billion.
Starbucks Corp. chairman Howard Schultz and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner joined the ranks of the world's richest for the first time, behind new faces Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, Canadian co-chiefs of Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd.
Self-made mogul Li Wei, founder of Synear Food Holding, made the list for the first time along with a dozen other Chinese newcomers. Her company, one of the country's largest producers of frozen food, including sweet and meat dumplings, is an official supplier to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
All bets were off for online gambling moguls Ruth Parasol, Russell DeLeon and Calvin Ayre, who dropped from the list after recent crackdowns limiting offshore gambling Web sites.
Bumped from the top 20 were the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. heirs, who saw their company's stock languish, and Michael Dell, founder of computer maker Dell Inc. Losing billionaire status entirely was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the once-powerful Japanese industrialist who first topped the tally in 1987.
Among three Indians in the wealthiest top 20 are Mukesh and Anil Ambani, feuding brothers who got even richer after dividing their fortunes in 2005. Mukesh Ambani ranked 14th with a $20.1 billion fortune, while brother Anil came in four places lower at No. 18 with his $18.2 billion.
