Carlos Slim remains the world’s richest person for a second year, with estimated assets of $74 billion — easily outdistancing American Bill Gates — according to Forbes magazine’s annual global ranking of billionaires.
With holdings that include the largest mobile-phone operation in the Americas, the 71-year-old Slim’s net worth exploded by $20.5 billion last year.
Gates, 55, chairman of Redmond, Wash.- based Microsoft Corp., remained second with a net worth that rose by $3 billion to $56 billion.
Warren Buffett, 80, chief executive of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., held on to third place with $50 billion.
“It wasn’t even close this year,” said Forbes media editor in chief Steve Forbes.
Slim’s net worth gained the most of any billionaire compared with 2010, Forbes said. Slim’s America Movil SAB is the biggest mobile-phone company in the Americas, with 225 million wireless subscribers.
There were a record number of billionaires in 2011, with 1,210 total, compared with the previous high of 1,125 in 2008, and there were 214 newcomers in 2011, with 54 from China and 31 from Russia.
Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old cofounder and chief executive of social-networking website Facebook Inc., jumped to 52nd place this year from 212th last year.
Entrepreneur Philip Anschutz remains atop Colorado’s richest list, though he dropped a spot on the Forbes list to 124th from 123rd, despite an increase in his personal wealth from $6 billion to $7.5 billion.
Dish Network creator Charlie Ergen of Denver moved up a few notches, to 136th from 148th, increasing his net worth from $4.9 billion last year to $7 billion.
Cable crusader and Liberty Media owner John Malone vaulted to 235th place from 400th last year, nearly doubling his wealth from $2.4 billion to $4.5 billion.
The world’s richest
Carlos Slim, telecom, $74 billion
Bill Gates, software, $56 billion
Warren Buffett, investor, $50 billion
Bernard Arnault, luxury goods, $41 billion
Larry Ellison, computers, $39.5 billion
Colorado’s richest
Philip Anschutz, media/entertainment, $7.5 billion
Charlie Ergen, satellite TV, $7 billion
John Malone, media/cable TV, $4.5 billion
James Leprino, cheese, $2.6 billion
Pat Stryker, medical devices, $1.6 billion
Gary Magness, cable TV, $1.4 billion
Thomas Bailey, money management, $1 billion
Source: Forbes
