For the 11th year in a row, Bill Gates tops the Forbes magazine's 2005 billionaires list.

Microsoft founder Gates was tallied with a net worth of US$46.5 billion, slightly less than his $46.6 billion from last year.

Investor Warren Buffett is next with a net worth of $44 billion, up from $42.9 billion in 2004.

Indian steel mogul Lakshmi Mittal sits in the number three spot in 2005 as having a net forth of $25 billion.

Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu came in fourth with $23.8 billion, up from number 17 in 2004; Saudi Arabian investor Prince al-Waleed Bin Talal Al Saud ranked number 5; and Sweden's Ingvar Kamprad, the Ikea magnate, rose to number 6 from number 13 last year.

The number of billionaires grew to a record 691 from 587 last year, and their total net worth rose by $300 billion to $2.2 trillion, Forbes reported.

Rounding out the top 10 were Microsoft's Paul Allen and German supermarket company owner Karl Albrecht. Oracle's Lawrence Ellison returned to the top 10 after slipping to number 12 last year.

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News source: NewsFactor

rofl... looks like bill's gotta watch his back

Gee, you think he could lower the price of his software just a little.

But he wants to STAY the richest man.

Bill should share all that money with us sence we test his PRODUCTS
Nickabocker
JK about that folks

lol its us who run to MS when they open a beta. They dont come running to us

Yay for Paul Allen!! How about investing some of that cash in your Charter cable system so we can catch up with the rest of the world on speed for HSI?

This is completely stupid ridiculous amounts of money to give to one person, why not give him a reasonably salary and give the rest to charity it’s not like he ever going to use all that money.

But wasn't there an article about a year ago announcing that Ingvar Kamprad had overtaken Bill Gates as #1? But now this new article says that Ingvar Kamprad just rose to number 6. I see a contradiction.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/04/04/ikea.richlist/

Cork: I'm on Charter. 4.4Mbps is pretty damn fast, considering the next fastest "broadband" available here is DSL's 256Kbps.

Other parts of the world are able to have higher speeds because they don't have as much of a load as we put on North America's cable infrastructure (fun word.)

well lets see, he has a shit load of stock in the compnay he founded....one of the richest in the world....so it makes sense thta he is worth that much..and as far as the charity goes, he gives away more a year than almost every celeb in America combined.......or so VH1 said...

Doesn't Gates donate tens of millions per year? That's pretty damn generous when you think about it.

You must be one of the lucky ones to be in a market where they are testing the 5Mb speed. Usually, Michigan has been one of their test markets for any of their speed increases. Didn't get so lucky this time.


The closest thing we can get for a time frame on the increase here is Sept/Oct of this year. By then, EVERYBODY else will have increased their speeds again!!

And in other news:

Ice Cold
Fire Hot
Water Wet
Earth Round

Oh that reminds me, Bill owes me $20!! Thanks for the heads up, now I know he can pay me without avoiding me again!! LOLOL

Amen lol this isnt news

Sorry I'll think you'll find it's more of a oval shape or like a egg shape

Man I wish I had 1/100 the amount of money Bill had.