After 13 years on top,Bill Gatesis no longer the richest
man in the world, thanks to hisunsolicited bid for
Yahoo.
That honour now belongs to his friend and sometimes bridge
partner
Warren
Buffett, who now tops the
Forbes rich list.
Riding on the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway stock, Buffett
has seen his fortune swell to an estimated £31bn - up £5bn from a
year ago.
Gates is now worth £29bn and is ranked only third richest in the
world.
Although Gates is still up £1bn from a year ago, he would have
been as rich - or richer - than Buffett, had Microsoft not made an
unsolicited bid for Yahoo at the beginning of February, said
Forbes.
The bid hit Microsoft's share price and toppled Gates off his
top perch as a result.
Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helú now ranks as the world's
second richest person with a net worth of £30bn.
Gates' arch rival Larry Ellison at Oracle is worth a modest
£12.5bn and is only 14th in the list.
The top 20 Billionaires in order:
1 Warren Buffett
2 Carlos Slim Helu
3 William Gates III
4 Lakshmi Mittal
5 Mukesh Ambani
6 Anil Ambani
7 Ingvar Kamprad
8 KP Singh
9 Oleg Deripaska
10 Karl Albrecht
11 Li Ka-shing
12 Sheldon Adelson
13 Bernard Arnault
14 Lawrence Ellison
15 Roman Abramovich
16 Theo Albrecht
17 Liliane Bettencourt
18 Alexei Mordashov
19 Prince Alwaleed
20 Mikhail Fridman
Source: Forbes