|
|
get even richer
Forbes billionaire list raises Oprah. Sorry, Ted.
Bad year to be a media tycoon?
Well, yes, at least if your name happens to be Gates, Turner or Murdoch.
But if it's Newhouse, Bloomberg or Winfrey, you may consider it a very happy year indeed.
Despite what many are calling a media recession, members of the latter group managed to increase their personal worth and move up Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest people, featured in the new issue.
Among the year's big winners were the Newhouse brothers, S.I. and Donald, whose shared media empire includes the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Vogue magazine. Forbes puts their 2003 wealth at $7.7 billion apiece, up from $5 billion last year.
In a year when U.S. billionaires lost a collective $98 billion, that was good enough to zoom them up 26 spots in the rankings, from No. 55 to No. 29.
Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg faces plenty of tough problems, but the performance of his business news operation isn’t one of them. Bloomberg climbed nine spots to No. 63 on the list, with his net worth growing from $4.4 billion to $4.8 billion.
Winfrey is a new addition to the list, and the first black woman to join the billionaires club. Her $1 billion fortune put her in a 51-way tie at No. 427.
Just ahead of Winfrey is U.S. News & World Report owner Mort Zuckerman, whose worth stayed flat at $1.1 billion.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates could still buy and sell Winfrey and Zuckerman many times over, but not quite as many times. While he continues to top the ranking, Gates' worth plunged from $52.8 billion last year to $40.7 billion in 2003.
Ex-AOL Time Warner vice chairman Ted Turner had another lousy year, losing nearly half of his $3.8 billion fortune and tumbling from No. 64 in the rankings to No. 97.
News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch also saw some of his wealth evaporate, sliding nine places down the rankings to No. 54 following a $200 million reduction in his $5.7 billion fortune.
Viacom boss Sumner Redstone also experienced a wealth reduction, from $8.1 billion last year to $8 billion this year, but he nonetheless managed to ascend six places to No. 26.
Elsewhere around the planet, Reinhard Mohn, whose family controls Bertelsmann, climbed four spots to No. 72 even though his fortune shrunk from $4.3 billion to $4.1 billion. Italian prime minister and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi dropped 10 spots to No. 35 as his worth decreased from $7.2 billion to $5.9 billion.
Here at the top 100 or so media people and other hardworking billionaires:
(Rank, Name, Age, Net Worth in $ Billions, Country)
1 William H Gates III 47 40.7 United States
2 Warren E Buffett 72 30.5 United States
3 Karl & Theo Albrecht -- 25.6 Germany
4 Paul G Allen 50 20.1 United States
5 Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud 46 17.7 Saudi Arabia
6 Lawrence J Ellison 58 16.6 United States
7 Alice L Walton 54 16.5 United States
7 Helen R Walton 83 16.5 United States
7 Jim C Walton 55 16.5 United States
7 John T Walton 57 16.5 United States
7 S Robson Walton 59 16.5 United States
12 Liliane Bettencourt 80 14.5 France
13 Kenneth Thomson & family 79 14.0 Canada
14 Ingvar Kamprad 76 13.0 Sweden
15 Birgit Rausing & family -- 12.9 Sweden
16 Steven A Ballmer 46 11.1 United States
17 John W Kluge 88 10.5 United States
18 Barbara Cox Anthony 79 10.3 United States
18 Anne Cox Chambers 83 10.3 United States
18 Amancio Ortega 67 10.3 Spain
21 Forrest E Mars Jr 71 10.0 United States
21 Jacqueline Mars 64 10.0 United States
21 John F Mars 66 10.0 United States
24 Michael Dell 38 9.8 United States
25 Abigail Johnson 41 8.2 United States
26 Mikhail B Khodorkovsky 39 8.0 Russia
26 Sumner M Redstone 79 8.0 United States
28 Li Ka-shing 74 7.8 Hong Kong
29 Donald E Newhouse 73 7.7 United States
29 Samuel I Newhouse Jr 75 7.7 United States
29 Hans Rausing 76 7.7 Sweden
32 Robert A Pritzker 76 7.6 United States
32 Thomas J Pritzker 52 7.6 United States
34 Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor 51 7.5 United Kingdom
35 Carlos Slim Helu 63 7.4 Mexico
36 Samuel C Johnson 74 7.3 United States
37 Nobutada Saji & family 57 7.1 Japan
38 George Soros 72 7.0 United States
39 Khaled, Hayat, Hutham, Lubna & Mary Olayan -- 6.9 Saudi Arabia
40 Bernard Arnault 54 6.7 France
40 Stefan Persson 55 6.7 Sweden
42 Walter, Thomas & Raymond Kwok -- 6.6 Hong Kong
43 Galen Weston & family 62 6.2 Canada
44 H Ty Warner 59 6.0 United States
45 Silvio Berlusconi 66 5.9 Italy
45 Charles Ergen 50 5.9 United States
45 Azim Premji 57 5.9 India
48 Carl Icahn 67 5.8 United States
49 Roman A Abramovich 36 5.7 Russia
49 Curt Engelhorn 76 5.7 Germany
49 Friedrich K Flick Jr 76 5.7 Germany
52 Leonardo Del Vecchio 67 5.6 Italy
52 August von Finck 72 5.6 Germany
54 Keith R Murdoch 72 5.5 United States
54 Rudolf August Oetker & family 86 5.5 Germany
54 Michael Otto & family 59 5.5 Germany
57 Susanne Klatten 41 5.3 Germany
58 Nasser Al-Kharafi & family 59 5.1 Kuwait
59 Pierre Landolt & family 55 5.0 Switzerland
59 Pierre M Omidyar 35 5.0 United States
59 Yasuo Takei & family 73 5.0 Japan
62 Philip F Anschutz 63 4.9 United States
63 Michael R Bloomberg 60 4.8 United States
64 Ernesto Bertarelli 37 4.7 Switzerland
65 Luciano Benetton & family 67 4.6 Italy
65 Marvin H Davis 77 4.6 United States
67 Alain & Gerard Wertheimer -- 4.5 France
68 Mikhail M Fridman 38 4.3 Russia
68 Lorenzo A Mendoza & family 37 4.3 Venezuela
68 Stefan Quandt 37 4.3 Germany
71 Philip H Knight 65 4.2 United States
72 Eitaro Itoyama 60 4.1 Japan
72 Fukuzo Iwasaki 78 4.1 Japan
72 Edward C Johnson III 72 4.1 United States
72 Karl-Heinz Kipp 79 4.1 Germany
72 Reinhard Mohn & family 81 4.1 Germany
72 Akira Mori 66 4.1 Japan
78 Donald L Bren 70 4.0 United States
78 Gustavo Cisneros & family 57 4.0 Venezuela
78 Charles D Koch 67 4.0 United States
78 David H Koch 62 4.0 United States
82 Eli Broad 69 3.9 United States
83 Rafik Al-Hariri & family 59 3.8 Lebanon
83 David Geffen 60 3.8 United States
83 Erivan Haub & family 70 3.8 Germany
83 Maria -Elisabeth & Georg Schaeffler -- 3.8 Germany
83 Dieter, Monika & Stefan von Holtzbrinck -- 3.8 Germany
88 Charlene L de Carvalho 48 3.7 Netherlands
88 Lee Shau Kee 75 3.7 Hong Kong
88 Henry Ross Perot 72 3.7 United States
88 Tsai Wan Lin 78 3.7 Taiwan
92 Antonia Johnson 59 3.6 Sweden
92 Joseph & Moise Safra -- 3.6 Brazil
94 Michele Ferrero 76 3.5 Italy
94 James, Arthur & John Irving -- 3.5 Canada
94 William Wrigley Jr 39 3.5 United States
97 Jeronimo Arango 77 3.4 Mexico
97 Kirk Kerkorian 85 3.4 United States
97 Robert Kuok 80 3.4 Malaysia
97 Johanna Quandt 75 3.4 Germany
February 28, 2003© 20
03 Media Life
Printer-Friendly
Version | Send
to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact
Us