Bloomberg News published its first Bloomberg Billionaires Index—and its founder, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is nowhere to be found! Probably because his net worth is estimated to be in the $20 billion range. The biggest billionaire is Carlos Slim, the Mexican mobile phone mogul (and NY Times lender), whose net worth is $68.5 billion; number two on the list is Bill Gates ($62.4 billion) and Warren Buffett ($43.8 billion). And the richest European? Ingvar Kamprad, whose IKEA empire has given him a fortune of over $40 billion.
The index, who is to be updated daily, appears to be Bloomberg News' foray into lists that have mainstays at Forbes and Fortune. Bloomberg News reports about the billionaire battling brewing, "Brazil’s Eike Batista, who ranks 10th, still covets the top spot after vowing a year ago that he’d become the world’s wealthiest man by 2015. 'I’m competitive,' Batista, who trails Slim by almost $39 billion, said in a March 2 telephone interview from Rio de Janeiro. 'It’s Brazil’s time to be No. 1. Brazilians have always admired the American dream. What’s happening in Brazil is the Brazilian dream and I happen to be the example.'"
Other notable rich guys on the list—Charles and David Koch, the brothers behind Tea Party moves—each bro has $34 billion.
Here are details on how Bloomberg News crunched on the numbers: "We try to identify and confirm all potential liabilities. No assumptions are made about personal debt."
