Mucho Denero
July 4, 2007 2:32 PM   Subscribe

Bill Gates no longer the Richest private citizen in the world. In other news, Larry Ellison still doesn't have any eyebrows.
posted by delmoi (38 comments total)
 
67.8 billion could pretty much buy all of Mexico, couldn't it?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:37 PM on July 4, 2007


omg I hope he's ok.
posted by jeffmik at 2:38 PM on July 4, 2007 [4 favorites]


Considering he's now unemployed, that's not too shabby.
posted by doctor_negative at 2:55 PM on July 4, 2007


Larry Ellison looks like Jerry Bruckheimer.
posted by ninjew at 2:55 PM on July 4, 2007


Larry Ellison looks like he is doing his best Riker impersonation.

As for Helu, this guy has his fingers in everything. Tried to buy Circuit City, large stakes in MCI, CDNow, not to mention TelMex.
posted by phaedon at 2:56 PM on July 4, 2007


dammit.
posted by ninjew at 2:57 PM on July 4, 2007


Bill gates is so gay
posted by growabrain at 2:58 PM on July 4, 2007


dinero, not denero
posted by pyramid termite at 3:05 PM on July 4, 2007


EnvyFilter.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 3:12 PM on July 4, 2007


67.8 billion could pretty much buy all of Mexico, couldn't it?

No. Oh, wait...that was supposed to be a joke, right?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 3:15 PM on July 4, 2007


I KAN HAS A BAZILLYUN CHEEZBRGRZ?
posted by blue_beetle at 3:25 PM on July 4, 2007


I continue to look forward to the day when the richest guy -- or even gal -- around made his (her) pile in nanotech or nuclear fusion.
posted by pax digita at 3:34 PM on July 4, 2007


Their total net worth of $233.4B is greater than the GDP of Ireland, 30th in a list of countries ranked by GDP. Helu alone could dole out Haiti's GDP for ten years and still have $20B left over.
posted by googly at 3:34 PM on July 4, 2007


I was looking on Wikipedia for more info on America Movil, when I read this:

América Móvil ... is the largest mobile network operator in North America and Latin America...

And this was my WTF face:

:O

How could it be possible that a previously unheard-of Mexican company could quietly own the largest network in the US? Could it be possible?

Yes, it could.
posted by Avenger at 3:43 PM on July 4, 2007


Comments are interesting ...

Stan Schroeder
2007-07-04 05:42:10
That was one funny article before the editor got his grubby hands on it.

Pete Cashmore
2007-07-04 05:57:17
I only removed the unfunny jokes. Which was all of them.
posted by krinklyfig at 3:52 PM on July 4, 2007


"We’ve put these two rascals together because they own exactly their huge wallets are the exact same size."

I am not sure that I would understand this sentence even if it were a sentence.
posted by furiousthought at 3:52 PM on July 4, 2007


I was going to question this, because Forbes had this guy at only $30 billion last year. But here's what happened to his company's stock price since then. Which, indeed, would put him in the $67 billion ballpark. Expect Forbes to follow suit.

Now, let's have Bono, Warren Buffett, or Ted Turner put the squeeze on him to donate a few billion to worthy causes.
posted by beagle at 3:54 PM on July 4, 2007


Their total net worth of $233.4B is greater than the GDP of Ireland

Of course, comparing a person's wealth to a country's gross domestic product isn't very meaningful.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 4:04 PM on July 4, 2007


Beagle, I've been looking for information regarding to that stock increasing $20 in three months but have found no single reason. Any ideas?
posted by now i'm piste at 4:22 PM on July 4, 2007


I confess. I bought a new phone from TracFone with a one-year card a couple months ago. That was well more than $20.
posted by wendell at 4:41 PM on July 4, 2007


What's up with the Farky headlines lately?

In other news, Bill Gates can still afford the double-Whopper with cheese.
posted by The Deej at 4:52 PM on July 4, 2007


phaedon: For your reference, "Helú" is his maternal surname. If you want to use just one, use "Slim" (his paternal surname).
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 5:05 PM on July 4, 2007


I tried to make some witty crack about how Bill Gates no longer is the richest man with the worst haircut, but I failed.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:16 PM on July 4, 2007 [1 favorite]


I tried to make some witty crack about how Bill Gates no longer is the richest man with the worst haircut, but I failed.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero


Well he can't afford a good haircut if he keeps spending all his money on double-Whoppers with cheese.
posted by The Deej at 5:20 PM on July 4, 2007


Bill's going to have to put Melinda out on a corner, earn him some cash money.
posted by stavrogin at 5:22 PM on July 4, 2007


Funny about Larry's eyebrows - I've worked for the dude for a long time, and I'd never noticed. Saw him on stage a couple weeks ago and didn't notice then, either - my guess is he had 'em removed to make him more aerodynamic. Dude flies a Mig, y'know. He's also big into sailing. Less wind in the eyebrows = more wind in the sails, is my thinking.
posted by kcds at 5:41 PM on July 4, 2007


I've been looking for information regarding to that stock increasing $20 in three months but have found no single reason. Any ideas?

Some clues here.

Basically, imagine a company that's got dibs on most of the new cell phone customers in Central America and South America for years to come. Capitalize the cash flow that represents. Then, imagine one guy who owns 77% of that company.
posted by beagle at 7:02 PM on July 4, 2007


Basically, imagine a company that's got dibs on most of the new cell phone customers in Central America and South America for years to come. Capitalize the cash flow that represents. Then, imagine one guy who owns 77% of that company.

But what does that have to do with one specific three month period?
posted by delmoi at 7:13 PM on July 4, 2007


kcds: I never noticed until it was pointed out.
posted by delmoi at 7:13 PM on July 4, 2007


Metafilter: never noticed until it was pointed out.
posted by toastchee at 8:17 PM on July 4, 2007


Why is this "I can has" shit so pervasive?

Was it ever funny?

I sit here, wondering.
posted by nonmerci at 9:16 PM on July 4, 2007


What does ""I can has" shit" mean?
posted by stavrogin at 11:42 PM on July 4, 2007


Was Mr Gates ever as rich as his portfolio made him seem? I mean, if your wealth is tied up in stock and you try to unload it all at once, price goes down. What would you pay for his last share of Microsoft? Slim, being more diversified, has probably been "richer" for some time.

All of which raises interesting questions on the meaning of money in a paper and electronic world.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:24 AM on July 5, 2007


Of course, comparing a person's wealth to a country's gross domestic product isn't very meaningful.

True. The comparison was a hasty attempt to put the figures in some kind of perspective.

These sort of lists have a tendency to desensitize us to the enormity of these numbers. I see that rich dude #1 is worth $67.8B; vs. rich dude #2, worth $59.2B; vs. rich dude #3, worth $21.5B --- and its difficult for me to think anything other than "damn, those are really, really, really big numbers, each one bigger than the next." But how different would my reaction be if those numbers were $6.7B and $5.9B and $2.1B? How much does that order of magnitude really matter?

I originally thought about using potential purchases to put these into perspective, but run into the same problem. Helú could afford to buy 297 747-400 airplanes, or huge swathes of property in New York or Tokyo, but that just doesn't seem to capture the magnitude of this kind of wealth. I'm not sure what does.
posted by googly at 8:04 AM on July 5, 2007


The GDP comparison is a little illuminating. He could just buy everything the country produces for 10 years.
posted by craven_morhead at 9:37 AM on July 5, 2007


Avenger: Well, it's still in sixth place now (and it's a virtual network). America Movil presumably only becomes the largest in North America when you account for its massive market share in Mexico (~75%).
posted by abcde at 11:18 AM on July 5, 2007


stavrogin : What does ""I can has" shit" mean?

'I can has' is lolcat speak for 'I would like a...'

Think of lolcat as a cross between a small child and internet leet speak. Sprinkle in a bit of English-isn't-your-first-language, and you get the idea.

It's been heavily popularized by the site icanhascheezburger, though I don't know if that is where it actually originated.

Lolcats have been featured on Metafilter many times.
posted by quin at 1:19 PM on July 5, 2007


I CAN HAZ SHIT?
posted by The Deej at 3:32 PM on July 6, 2007


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