"Steve Wright" [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Hi all, Im still looking for I.T related cases Ive found a great one Borland
Vs Lotus, but Im having trouble finding more.
P.S Thanks for this one Sue, $50 billion, Now I know who to invest it lol
Cheers Steve
-Original Message-
From: Sue Hartigan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sunday, April 05, 1998 2:10 AM
Subject: LI GATES IS THE $50-BILLION MAN
Sue Hartigan [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Wall Street's high lasted only minutes,
but Bill Gates' milestone of the wild day
is forever - yesterday his personal stake
in Microsoft passed $50 billion.
That is a stunning Wall Street record -
and comes just 23 years after Gates set
up the company from nothing with
college buddy Paul Allen.
Gates is now richer than hundreds of
countries around the world.
The 42-year-old chairman of Microsoft
Corp. saw his fortune swell by nearly $1
billion during eight frenzied hours of
trading as the Dow Jones industrial
average cracked the 9,000 mark briefly.
It boosted his personal wealth to $50.35
billion, easily letting Gates retain his title
as the world's richest man. Microsoft,
the software company he co-founded in
1975, is worth more than $220 billion.
Yesterday's rise makes him richer than
the entire economies of most nations,
including the oil-rich states of Kuwait
($28.9 billion) and the United Arab
Emirates ($42.8 billion), as well as
Egypt ($45.5 billion), Hungary ($42.1
billion) and Nigeria ($28.4 billion).
From a Harvard dropout who started on
a shoestring in a friend's garage, Gates
has become the new model of the
American dream, replacing Henry Ford
and Andrew Carnegie.
All of Gates' wealth is tied up in
Microsoft stock, which has been one of
Wall Street's biggest winners ever.
In the last nine months, as the Dow
surged 1,000 points over last summer's
historic 8,000 level, Gates earned a
staggering $20 billion in paper profits
on his Microsoft stock.
It could buy a $9 meal for every man,
woman and child on the planet.
Over that nine-month period, it amounts
to earning an hourly wage of about
$13.8 million.
Investors love the nerdy rich man
because he's created so many rich
people with his Microsoft stock.
Even scores of his employees at
Microsoft have become millionaires on
the stock options he awarded as
bonuses in lieu of cash over the years.
His stock is even stronger than the
American greenback.
Dollars shrink in value about 3 percent
a year due to inflation, but Microsoft
stock increases each year, 38 percent
since January alone.
While Wall Street forgives Gates almost
anything, bureaucrats in Washington
aren't that admiring.
Federal regulators and the attorney
general are probing Gates'
money-making machine for possible
strong-arm tactics that may have
broken monopoly laws.
Being rich has its price. Senators have
called Gates to Capitol Hill for an
unprecedented and humiliating public
grilling. Even some of his biggest
boosters of the past are turning against
him.
Just yesterday, the respected editor of
Windows Magazine, former Gates
booster Mike Elgan, published an angry
open letter to Gates, urging him to
reform his products or lose out on the
race to the future.
"The time has come for someone to
publicly state your dirty little secret:
