Page 124 - Forbes - USA (October 2019)

age 10, then used his early sav-
ings of $114.75 to buy three
shares of Cities Service pre-
ferred stock. This past April,
his Omaha-based firm agreed
to spend $10 billion buying
shares in Occidental Petroleum
if it completed its acquisition
of energy firm Anadarko Petro-
leum Corp.; the two companies
merged in August.
120
4. MARK ZUCKERBERG
5. LARRY ELLISON
0 $69.6 BILLION S
1
SELF-MADE SCORE: * $65 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: (
P
O SOURCE: FACEBOOK SOURCE: ORACLE
T AGE: 35 RESIDENCE: PALO ALTO, CA AGE: 75 RESIDENCE: WOODSIDE, CA

PHILANTHROPY SCORE: PHILANTHROPY SCORE:

T Facebook was fined $5 billion The Oracle chairman and chief
S
I in July by the Federal Trade technology officer lost a top
L
Commission for violating con- lieutenant in September when
E
H sumers’ privacy. While the co-CEO Mark Hurd took an in-
T penalty was the largest in the definite leave of absence, citing
FTC’s history, it didn’t dent the health reasons. Co-CEO Safra
$55.8 billion (2018 sales) so- Catz, a 20-year company veter-
cial network, whose stock is an, is now alone atop Oracle,
up 15% in the past year, or the whose revenues grew less than
fortune of its CEO, who is $8.6 1% in the past fiscal year as it
billion richer than a year ago. faced strong competition. In
Concerns linger that Facebook August, Ellison reportedly res-
has become too powerful and cued his daughter Megan’s film
2. BILL GATES has control of too much data. and TV production company,
His cofounder Chris Hughes, Annapurna Pictures (Zero Dark
$106 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: * who left the company years Thirty, Vice), from the brink
SOURCE: MICROSOFT ago, wrote an opinion piece of bankruptcy. His son David’s
AGE: 64 RESIDENCE: MEDINA, WA
for the New York Times in May Skydance Media is behind the
PHILANTHROPY SCORE: calling for Facebook to be bro- upcoming Top Gun: Maver-
Gates responded to the public ken up. Zuckerberg started ick. Ellison joined Tesla’s board
backlash against billionaires the business at age 19 while in December and revealed he
by reiterating his support for attending Harvard; he later owned $950 million in shares.
a higher estate tax. In the dropped out. Earlier this year, The stock has since dropped by
Bill & Melinda Gates Foun- he reportedly paid $59 million 28%. Ellison, who worked sum-
dation’s annual Goalkeepers for a sprawling estate in Lake mers as a lifeguard, founded
Report, published in Sep- Tahoe, about a four-hour drive Oracle in 1977; he gave up the
tember, he and Melinda are from Facebook headquarters. CEO job five years ago.
up-front about being born to
“white, well-off parents” who
sent them to excellent schools,
while noting that hardship is
the rule for hundreds of mil-
lions of other people. Their
foundation, they say, is work-
ing to create equal opportu-
nities for people around the 3. WARREN BUFFETT
globe. He is the subject of a
three-part Net flix documenta- $80.8 BILLION T SELF-MADE SCORE: * ELAINE THOMPSON/AP; NATI HARNIK/AP; CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP; CHRISTOPHE MORIN/BLOOMBERG
ry, Inside Bill’s Brain: Decod- SOURCE: BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY
ing Bill Gates, that first aired AGE: 89 RESIDENCE: OMAHA
in September. At 16 Gates PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
spent a year working on a The legendary investor con-
computer programming proj- tinues to run conglomerate
ect for the Bonneville Power Berkshire Hathaway, which
Administration, which con- owns stakes in everything
trolled Washington State’s from Apple to Delta Air Lines
electric grid. He and his high to JPMorgan Chase. He start-
school classmate Paul Allen ed his first business at age 7,
(d. 2018) soon had plans to de- selling chewing gum and Co-
velop software for the grow- ca-Colas door-to-door on hot
ing personal computer mar- evenings. Buffett went on to
ket. Gates left Harvard in 1975 work at his grandfather’s gro-
to pursue that idea. cery store, Buffett & Son, at

O C T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 9
F O R B E S . C O M
WEALTH INHERITED VS. SELF-MADE CHANGE IN WEALTH KEY: S UP T DOWN SIGNATORY OF THE PHILANTHROPY SCORE
! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) WX UNCHANGED Ì NEW TO LIST 3 RETURNEE GIVING PLEDGE