Billionaire Benefactors Give More Than You Think…
In 2008, many of our national billionaires gave much of their fortunes away, involuntarily. From Sheldon Adelson, the Vegas and Macau casino billionaire who lost $24 billion ($24B) to Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and the Google guys, last year was a very difficult year to amass. Now who’s to say that losing “a few personal billion” when you still have “a few” is an innovation problem – it matters when these entrepreneurs pull back on progress and humanitarian giving to stem private losses.
Per Forbes, Warren Buffet lost $16.5B, Gates was down $12.3B and Google’s Larry Page lost more than half of his g-trove: $11.9B.
Google shed 59% of its stock value with co-founder Sergey Brin managing a slightly lesser $11.7B reduction, and CEO Eric Schmidt lost $3.8B. Interestingly, no mention of Carlos Slim of Telmex who has recently surplanted Gates as the second wealthiest individual in the world. Other notables include: Larry Ellison down $8.2B, Sumner Redstone shed $7.2B, Amazonian Jeff Bezos lost $4.6B (perhaps he should have produced a few more Kindles to meet demand) and Rupert Murdoch wrote off $4B.
Combined, the tycoons on [Forbes'] ranking lost $167 billion in 11 months, while shares of the companies in which they own stakes fell an average 59%.
As I head out to Vegas for CES this week – where old, new and potential Medici flock each year to press flesh, create bigger flat screens and find new ways to exploit media – it will be significant to see just who is willing to still take risks, make aggressive acquisitions (Lionsgate with TV Guide, anyone?) even with a smaller purse.
