After 13 years on top, Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world, thanks to his unsolicited 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
