WebProNews

Tag: Wealthy

  • Bill Gates’ Tops Forbes 400 Again, Grows Even Wealthier

    The old cliche, “Money makes money,” is quite factual when it comes to billionaire business magnate, Bill Gates. The man just keeps getting richer with time.

    Topping the Forbes’ 400 list for the 20th consecutive year, Gates has been deemed the wealthiest man in America yet again. While everyone commonly accredits Gates’ accumulation of wealth to the ever-successful Microsoft Corporation, that’s actually not where the vast majority of his revenue was acquired.

    Forbes explained in a rather enlightening report that only a fifth of Gates’ astronomical fortune was acquired through profits he’s garnered from Microsoft. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, that ‘fifth’ is actually equivalent to approximately 4.8% in ownership of the massive software conglomerate. Then, in addition profits from that 4.8%, Gates’ may have actually come out with a little more than that fifth, as the calculations may have been slightly obscure due to a minute surge in the cost of Microsoft shares last August. With the resignation of Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, the company’s stock elevated to over $36.00 a share before dropping to a consistency of about $32.00 a share.

    According to Yahoo Finance, Cascade, which is Gates’ investment conglomerate, is actually the dominant force behind his empire. Cascade holds approximately 65% of Gates’ assets, due to the success of companies such as Berkshire Hathaway, Canadian National Railway, tractor manufacturing company John Deere, and Coca Cola’s brewing and bottling subsidiary, FESMA.

    With the successful accumulation of assets outside of Microsoft, Gates was approximately $9.8 billion richer at the top of 2013 than the year before, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index. Gates’ mind-blowing financial portfolio justifies exactly how he can afford to charitably bestow almost $29 billion over a five-year span. Bill Gates’ empire definitely serves as a prime example of a ‘gift that keeps on giving,’ as he grows richer and richer.

     

     

    Image via WikiMedia Commons

  • Gore ‘Romney rich’, According to Bloomberg

    Gore ‘Romney rich’, According to Bloomberg

    Al Gore is well-known for his close 2000 election loss to George W. Bush and for his evangelism on the issue of global warming. However, the former Vice President has been quietly amassing a fortune in the years since his political career ended.

    Bloomberg is reporting that Gore is now ‘Romney rich’, with a net worth that rivals the infamously wealthy 2012 Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney. Using company filings and tax records, the publication estimates that Gore could be worth more than $200 million. Romney’s net worth is estimated to be close to $250 million.

    The 65-year-old Gore’s riches reportedly come from a variety of sources. Just this year, Gore has made around $100 million from selling investments. The Current TV network was sold in January and Gore nabbed around $70 million for his share of the network. He also sold 59,000 shares of Apple stock he has received for serving on the tech company’s board, netting Gore around $30 million.

    Sales of his global warming books and movie, An Inconvenient Truth, haven’t added to Gore’s wealth. Profit made by Gore on those products has been donated to the nonprofit Climate Reality Project, which Gore founded in 2010.

    Gore’s affluence last came up in 2007, when reports came out that his home in Nashville used significantly more energy than the average American household. Global warming deniers seized on this fact to paint Gore as a hypocrite. In 2010, Gore bought an $8.8 million villa in Montecito, California.

    Gore participated in a Reddit AMA late last year, but did not comment on his growing wealth.

  • The Wealthy Love Facebook, Twitter Not So Much

    It appears that the wealthy in this country have begun to embrace social media more and more in the last year, and they definitely have a favorite social network.

    The Social Network, that is: Facebook.

    According to a report from strategic consulting firm Spectrem Group entitled “Social Media and Affluent Households,” the percentage of American millionaires current using Facebook has doubled over the last year to 46% in 2011.

    The report broke down the levels of wealth into three different groups: First, the mass affluent who have a net worth of $100,000 to $1 million. Second, the millionaires who have a net worth of $1 million to $5 million. Finally, the Ultra High Net Worth Investors who have a net worth of $5 million to $25 million.

    The mass affluent outperformed the millionaires, totaling 55% using Facebook. 47% of Ultra High Net Worth Investors are currently on the network.

    The next most popular social media service for the wealthy is LinkedIn. 22% of the mass affluent, 19% of millionaires and 26% of the Ultra High Net Worth Investors are registered users.

    Led by Facebook, the social media era has finally arrived for the nation’s wealthiest investors, with nearly half the nation’s millionaires now logging onto the social network. Wealthy investors are also interested in reading blogs by trusted financial advisors. The message is clear. Learning how to effectively use social media and financial blogs is critical to the future success of financial services firms. Providers who fall behind run the risk of frustrating their investors and losing customers,

    The interesting statistic involves the relatively miniscule percent of the $100K – $25 million population who are using Twitter. Only 5% of the mass affluent, 3% of millionaires and 6% of the Ultra High Net Worth Investors are on the service.

    If the nation’s wealthiest investors are learning that they need social media for their future financial success, what does that say about Twitter? Do the rich see it as non-vital to their goals?

    Why would the wealthy flock to Facebook in droves but stay away from Twitter? Is it because Facebook is an older service and somehow feels more established? Do the privacy settings on Facebook and LinkedIn appeal to the investors? On Twitter, you basically have to set your feed to private or let everyone follow you – there is little grey area.

    Why do the wealthy overwhelmingly prefer Facebook? Let us know what you think.