Take the current battle between Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Spanish textile giant Amancio Ortego, owner of Inditex, They’ve been duking it out, so to speak, this week over the title of the richest person on the planet.
According to Forbes, which ranks the worth of the world’s billionaires in real time, Gates was sitting at the top spot as of Thursday morning Eastern Time, with an estimated net worth of $85.1 billion, up $146 million on the day. Ortega, meanwhile, was on his heels, with a worth of $81.7 billion, a drop of $2.4 billion on the day.
Count Amazon’s Jeff Bezos in the mix, as well.
But that hardly belies the excitement in a world swimming in cash. On Tuesday, Forbes reported that Ortega managed to overtake Gates, helped by a gain for shares of Inditex. Again on Wednesday, Ortega got back on top, but by Thursday, that was all but a pipe dream, with the two separated by just over $3 billion.
Ortega, notes Forbes, had held that top spot three times before Tuesday, but always gave it up within a day. A drop in shares of Inditex in Madrid Thursday appears to have dashed Ortega’s hopes at dominance, with some noting investors are impatient with a wait for first-half earnings due Sept. 20.
The two may have more in common besides money. Ortega has a reputation for frugality, eating at the company cafeteria everyday and stopping at the same place for coffee, while Gates apparently wears a $10 watch and does the dishes every night.
As for the rest of that list, Berkshire Hathaway’s birthday-boy William Buffett comes in fourth with Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg at No. 5.
Still, the battle between billionaires could go on for a while. And while you probably won’t ever catch the reclusive and media shy Ortega say it, one can almost imagine him uttering these words: “Hasta manaña, Guillermo.”
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