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top 10 World’s Youngest Billionaires

2012-05-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

The world’s youngest billionaire, Dustin Moskovitz, was Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard roommate and Facebook’s third employee. He is just eight days younger than his friend. The two dropped out of Harvard and moved to California to work for the social networking firm full time; he was its first chief technology officer and then vice president of engineering. He left in 2008 to start Asana, a software company that allows individuals and small companies to better collaborate. Values of his new company: “pragmatism,” “being a mensch,” “admitting when you’re wrong” and “chill-ness.”

Zuckerberg’s Facebook was a key spark in the spread and organization of the recent revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya. Back home President Obama praised Facebook as an example of American innovation in his January State of the Union address. A month later the Facebook cofounder and chief executive sat next to Obama at a dinner with other tech titans, including Apple’s Steve Jobs. Over the last year the 26-year-old’s fortune surged 238% to $13.5 billion as investments from firms like Goldman Sachs boosted Facebook’s valuation to $50 billion.

First appeared in Forbes’ ranks at age 8, but officially inherited fortune in June 2001, on his 18th birthday. Went to high school in Rome; in June 2008 received an M.A. in economics and theology from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Assets include real estate, art and a tech company, plus 30,000 hectares of woodland in Germany, one of the largest forest holdings in Europe. Despite local opposition is apparently going ahead with plans to build one of the world’s largest solar farms in Bavaria, southern Germany, to sell electricity. Lives in family castle, Schloss Emmeram.

Together with former best bud Mark Zuckerberg, started Facebook at Harvard and received a 30% stake in the company. Relationship soured when Facebook sued Saverin for allegedly interfering with business and insisting on keeping 30% stake; Saverin countersued. The parties settled, with Saverin apparently getting a 5% stake and a cofounder bio on Facebook’s site. Source tells Forbes Saverin has been selling shares and now holds 2%. In January made rare news when he led an $8 million round of financing of Qwiki, a hot Silicon Valley startup.

Main shareholder in Country Garden Holdings of Guangzhou, one of China’s largest property developers. The company’s chairman is Yang’s father, Yeung Kwok Keung, who transferred his holding to her before the company went public in Hong Kong in 2007. Wealth is up this year amid strong sales in 2010, owing to the company’s large land bank. Yang graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in marketing and logistics.

Youngest son of slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri inherited stake in his father’s construction, telecom and real estate conglomerate Saudi Oger after his death in 2005. Serves on the board of family’s Future TV, a satellite and terrestrial television network covering the Middle East. Lives in Paris.

Silicon Valley strategist and former Facebook president debuts as a billionaire based on the surging value the social networking site. His reported stake: just under 3%. At 19 cofounded Napster, music sharing service that brought free music to the masses and helped trigger the record industry’s precipitous decline. Made famous after being played by Justin Timberlake in movie The Social Network. Now managing partner at Founders Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in tech companies. Put money into Spotify, popular European music subscription service hoping to launch in the U.S. sometime this year.

Son of slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who left behind a fortune now shared by his five children. Ayman sits on the board of Saudi Oger, a construction, telecom and real estate conglomerate. Oversees group’s construction division, which is behind mega projects such as Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University for Women and King Abdullah Financial District. Sits on the board of 3C Telecommunications, a South African mobile operator which is majority-owned by Saudi Oger.

Founder of Gree, Japan’s largest social networking site, may be facing off with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg soon; setting up shop in California. On global expansion kick–working with Tencent, largest Internet service portal in China. Stock up 35% in past year. Started out at Sony; worked for fellow billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani at online shopping site Rakuten. Left in 2004 to set up Gree at a tech incubator; company name inspired by American social psychologist Stanley Milgram’s concept of “six degrees of separation.” Transitioned site into mobile gaming to better compete with rivals.

Founded online retailer of apparel and accessories; widely popular Zozotown caters to young fashionistas. Website is structured like actual mall where stores are set up; sells on consignment. Sales have grown on average 50% annually over the past five years. Company announced 300-for-1 stock split in December. Maezawa, an avid customer, owns 59% of the firm. Plans to branch out to older customers in alliance with Yahoo Japan. Also looking to sell overseas.

Top 10 World’s Richest People – 2012

2012-05-16T10:27:00.001-07:00

#1. Carlos Slim Helu

Net Worth: $69 billion (down from $74 billion in 2010)
2010 Rank: #1
Age: 72
Fortune: Self made
Source: Telecom
Country of Citizenship: Mexico
Residence: Mexico City, Mexico
Industry: Communications
Marital Status: widowed, 6 children
Education: BA/BS, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

Carlos Slim Helu retains the title of world’s richest man for the third year in a row despite a fortune that’s $5 billion smaller than a year ago-primarily because of a lower share price for telecom giant America Movil, which accounts for more than half his net worth. In April the company was fined $1 billion by Mexican regulators for monopolistic practices, but is appealing the decision. Slim is spending more time working with his Carlos Slim Foundation and the Telmex Foundation than he has in the past.

#2. William Gates III

Net Worth: $61 billion (up from $56 billion in 2010)
2010 Rank: #2
Age: 56
Fortune: Self made
Source: Microsoft
Country of Citizenship: United States
Residence: Medina, Washington, USA
Industry: Software
Marital Status: Married, 3 children
Education: Dropout, Harvard University

First part of mission accomplished: Bill Gates, the most generous person on the planet (he’s given away $28 billion already), has helped eradicate polio in India. In January the country announced its first polio-free year. Gates will continue to chip in $200 million a year to rid the world of a disease that is still endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. His Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also spearheading a malaria vaccine that is showing promise in clinical trials. Meanwhile the vaccine-spreading organization he founded, called GAVI, raised $4.3 billion in pledges aimed at distributing drugs to thwart the deadly infections that cause meningitis, pneumonia, and diarrhea in developing countries. He also has a new endeavor in the works: fixing agriculture. His foundation has committed more than $2 billion to small farmers. Less than one-fourth of his net worth is still held in Microsoft, whose shares are trading higher than they have been in 10 years; the rest is in private equity, bonds and stocks such as Ecolab and Mexican broadcaster Televisa.

#3. Warren Buffett

Net Worth: $44 billion (down from $50 billion in 2010)
2010 Rank: #3
Age: 81
Fortune: Self made
Source: Berkshire Hathaway
Country Of Citizenship: United States
Residence: Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Industry: Investments
Marital Status: widowed, remarried, 3 children
Education: MS, Columbia University; BA/BS, University of Nebraska Lincoln

Warren Buffett announced in February he’d finally made the decision about who will replace him, but he wouldn’t give a name. In December, he chose his farmer son, Howard, as the future non-executive chairman and “guardian of the firm’s values.” New Senate legislation requiring the rich to pay at least a 30% tax rate has been dubbed the “Buffett Rule” in homage to the billionaire’s frequent public statements that the wealthiest should pay more than the average Joe. His net worth is down $6 billion year on year because of a 7% slump in Berkshire’s stock. In his latest annual letter he confessed to some mistakes, including being “dead wrong” about a housing comeback.

#4. Bernard Arnault

Net Worth: $41 billion (no change from last year)
2010 Rank: #4
Age: 63
Fortune: Inherited and growing
Source: Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH)
Country of Citizenship: France
Residence:Paris, France
Marital Status: Married; five children
Education: BA/BS, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne

Bernard Arnault orchestrated another stellar year for his luxury-goods empire, LVMH. Profits jumped 22%, thanks to record sales at Louis Vuitton and the successful integration of Bulgari. The group formed a joint venture with one of the world’s leading tanneries of crocodile leather, Heng Long. Arnault hasn’t done as well with his more pedestrian investment in supermarket chain Carrefour, which is worth $1 billion less than it was a year ago. Among his personal high-end collection: He owns Indigo Island in the Bahamas (rent: $300,000 a week) and ski chalet Cheval Blanc in Courchevel.

#5. Amancio Ortega

Net Worth: $37.5 billion (up from $31 billion in 2010)
2010 Rank: #7
Age: 75
Fortune: Self-made
Source: Zara
Country of Citizenship: Spain
Residence: La Coruna, Spain
Marital Status: Married; three children

Ortega stepped down as chairman of his global fashion firm, Inditex, in July 2011. The company hasn’t missed a beat. Shares are up one-fourth in the past year, helping boost his fortune by $6.5 billion and pushing him into the global top 5 ranks for the first time. Ortega paid $536 million to billionaire Esther Koplowitz in December for Torre Picasso, a 43-story skyscraper in Madrid. He also owns Epic Residences & Hotel, a luxury 54-story waterfront condo and hotel development in Miami. Other personal holdings include a stake in a soccer league and a horse-jumping circuit. A railway worker’s son, he started as a gofer in a shirt store.

#6. Larry Ellison

Net Worth: $36 (down from $39.5 billion in 2010)
2010 Rank: #5
Age: 67
Fortune: Self-made
Source: Oracle
Country of Citizenship: United States
Residence: Woodside, California, USA
Marital Status: Thrice divorced, remarried; two children
Education: Dropout, University of Chicago; Dropout, University of Illinois at Urbana

Oracle’s stock has been oscillating for months. It’s rebounded since its August low but is still off 15% year on year due to a slowdown in the software and hardware giant’s sales, enough to knock $3.5 billion off Ellison’s fortune. Seeking to profit from cloud computing, Oracle acquired Taleo in February for $1.9 billion and RightNow in October for $1.5 billion. Ellison has been tagged as one of the clutch of billionaires interested in buying the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. His big sport is yachting: he won the America’s Cup in 2010 and is bringing the 34th edition of the America’s Cup Finals to the San Francisco Bay in 2013.

#7. Eike Batista

Net Worth: $30 billion (no change from last year)
2010 Rank: #8
Age: 55
Fortune: Self-made
Source: Mining, Oil
Country of Citizenship: Brazil
Residence: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Marital Status: Divorced, two children
Education: Dropout, RWTH Aachen University

Eike Batista, Brazil’s richest man, is riding high on oil fever. His oil and gas driller, OGX Petroleo e Gas, produced its first oil in a test well offshore in late January; his 61% stake in the company is worth $19.8 billion, two-thirds of his net worth. The bombastic entrepreneur is also betting on his former passion, gold: In February 2011 he spent $1.5 billion to take private Canadian-listed Ventana Gold, which owns what he says is an incredibly promising mine in Colombia.

#8. Stefan Persson

Net Worth: $26 billion (down from $24.5 billion in 2010)
2010 Rank: #13
Age: 64
Fortune: Inherited and growing
Source: H&M
Country of Citizenship: Sweden
Residence: Stockholm, Sweden
Marital Status: Married, three children
Education: Associate in Arts / Science, University of Stockholm

Stefan Persson’s cheap-chic apparel chain H&M added Versace and Marni to its stable of designers last year and opened its first stores in Croatia, Singapore and Romania. It now has 2,500 shops in 43 countries. Persson, who is chairman, bought 5 million additional shares of the company and then gifted 4 million, worth $150 million, to a new employee incentive program. Persson’s father, Erling, founded H&M in 1947; Stefan took over in 1982, he gave up the chief executive position in 1998; promoted son, Karl-Johan, 35, to chief executive in July 2009. Persson acquired the 21-cottage village of Linkenholt in Hampshire, England in 2009.

#9. Li Ka-shing

Net Worth: $25.5 billion (up from $22 billion in 2010)
2010 Rank: #11
Age: 83
Fortune: Diversified, self-made
Source: Hutchison Whampoa Limited
Country of Citizenship: Hong Kong
Residence: Hong Kong
Marital Status: Widow, two children
Education: Drop Out, High School

Li Ka-shing moves back into the top 10 for the first time since 2007. He is Asia’s richest person for the first time since 2004, despite a $500 million drop in net worth. One of the great empire builders, Li’s businesses employ 270,000 people around the world in 53 countries; he built one out of every 7 residences in Hong Kong, his Hutchison Port Holdings handles about 13% of the world’s container traffic, and his recently acquired Northumbrian Water supplies clean drinking water to 4.5 million people in England and sewerage services to another 2.7 million. Li also has personal investments in tech startups like Facebook and Spotify.

#10. Karl Albrecht

Net Worth: $25.4 billion (down from $25.5 billion in 2010)
2010 Rank: #12
Age: 92
Fortune: Self-made
Source: Aldi Supermarkets
Country of Citizenship: Germany
Residence: Mulheim an der Ruhr,
Marital Status: Married, two children

Karl Albrecht’s $39 billion (estimated sales) discount supermarket giant, Aldi Sud, has some 4,500 stores, including 1,200 across 32 U.S. states. It opened its first New York City locations in 2011, one in Queens and another in the Bronx. To keep costs low, Aldi stores do not accept credit cards. He and his late brother Theo got their start at their mother’s corner grocery store after World War II and turned it into a large retail chain based on low prices in a no-frills setting. They split ownership in 1961; Karl took the more profitable stores in southern Germany, plus the rights to the brand in the U.K., Australia and the U.S.

Top 10 most expensive cars in the world

2012-05-16T07:11:00.002-07:00

1. Bugatti Veyron :

Price: $1,700,000

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2. Ferrari Enzo :

Price: $1,000,000

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3. Pagani Zonda C12 F :

Price: $741,000

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4. Koenigsegg CCX :

Price: $600,901

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5. Porsche Carrera GT :

Price: $ 484,000

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6. Mercedes SLR McLaren :

Price: $ 455,500

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7. Maybach 62 :

Price: $ 385,250

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8. Rolls-Royce Phantom :

Price: $ 320,000

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9. Lamborghini Murcielago :

Price: $ 279,900

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10. Aston Martin Vanquish :

Price: $ 255,000

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Top 5 fast cars in the world

2012-05-16T06:34:00.002-07:00

1. SSC ULTIMATE AERO:

specs :

Top speed (mph) : 257
0-60 (mph) in : 2.7s
Engine : twin-turbo v8 (hp: 1183)
price in $ : 654,400

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2. BUGATTI VEYRON:

specs :

Top speed (mph) : 253
0-60 (mph) in : 2.5s
Engine : w-16 (hp: 1001)
price in $ : 1,444,000

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3. KOENIGSEGG CCX:

specs :

Top speed (mph) : 250
0-60 (mph) in : 3.2s
Engine : 90 Degree V8 (hp: 806)
price in $ : 695,000

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4. SALEEN S7 TWIN TURBO:

specs :

Top speed (mph) : 248
0-60 (mph) in : 3.2s
Engine : twin turbo all aluminum V8 (hp: 750)
price in $ : 555,000

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5. MCLAREN F1:

specs :

Top speed (mph) : 250
0-60 (mph) in : 3.2s
Engine : BMW s70/2 60 Degree V12 (hp: 627)
price in $ : 970,000

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