Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett has elbowed Bill Gates off the top of the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, reports Bloomberg. Gates has owned that list for the past 15 years.
The magazine revised its calculations of the September markets in the list to be published Sept. 17. It found that between between Aug. 29 and Oct. 1, Buffett added $8 billion to his porfolio, bringing it to $58 billion. Meanwhile, Gates’ net worth declined $1.5 billion to $55.5 billion.
He wasn’t the biggest loser, though. Las Vegas Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson’s net worth dropped $4 billion during that 33-day period. Among others:
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s wealth dropped $1.6 billion to $25.4 billion.
Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page each lost $1.5 billion.
Michael Dell’s fortune dwindled $1.4 billion to $15.9 billion.
Investor Carl Icahn’s holdings fell $1.6 billion to $12 billion.
And Amazon.com founder Jeffrey Bezos’ holdings dropped by $1.1 billion to $7.6 billion.
Monday, October 13
IBM sells $3.9 billion in corporate bonds
IBM Corp. sold $3.9 billion in bonds on Thursday, a sign that the stalwarts of the corporate world are still finding lenders."The markets were open to us at this time, so we decided to enter," said IBM spokesman Doug Shelton. He added that it was an opportunity to cover pending maturities as the company enters the fourth quarter and approaches the new year.Late Wednesday, the Armonk, N.Y.-based tech company gave Wall Street an early glimpse into its quarterly results, reporting a better-than-expected profit.
Shares of IBM fell $1.55, or 1.7 percent, to close at $89 on Thursday. That was a smaller drop than the 7.3 percent decline in the Dow Jones industrial average, which includes IBM, and the 5.3 percent decrease in the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index.Still, analysts have expressed concern that IBM could have problems in the fourth quarter and into 2009 if the lending and spending environment deteriorates, as many expect it will.
IBM's bond sale was in three parts: $1.4 billion of 5-year notes, $1.5 billion of 10-year notes, and $1 billion of 30-year bonds. Those bonds had rates of 3.875 percent over Treasuries for the 5-year and 10-year notes, and 4.00 percent over Treasuries for the 30-year bonds.
It was the second major corporate bond sale to go forward since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September. Last month, Caterpillar Inc. issued nearly $1.3 billion in notes with rates of 7.05 percent and 6.2 percent.
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