Oprah joins ranks of billionaires

Many of the world’s richest people saw their fortunes shrink again during the last year, but US chat show queen Oprah Winfrey’s grew enough to put her on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires – the first black woman to join the ranks.

Bill Gates leads the list for the ninth straight year, but the Microsoft co-founder’s net worth fell 23% from a year ago to $40.7bn (€37.78bn).

Investment guru Warren Buffett remained in second place with $30.5bn (€28.3bn), a 13% drop from last year.

Gates’ personal wealth, much of it in company stock, has diminished by 60% since April 1998, when it briefly reached $100bn (€92.81bn).

His worst year was 1999, when it plunged by a third as the government pursued an anti-monopoly case against Microsoft. Forbes notes he is also the world’s biggest giver, donating $1bn (€928m) annually to charity, largely to vaccine research.

Meanwhile, Winfrey’s media empire grew steadily stronger, and she made the list this year with a net worth of $1bn (€928m).

Her debut comes just two years after Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson became the first black billionaire.

Membership in the exclusive club fell by 21 this year to 476, the third year of declines since the economy weakened and stock markets started falling. The group’s combined wealth also fell to $1.4tln (€1.29tln) from $1.54tln (€1.429tln) last year.

“You see the poor economies wreaking havoc on their finances like everyone else. They’re not immune,” said Louisa Kroll, who edited Forbes’ March billionaires issue, which was due to hit US news-stands today.

The 222 Americans on the list hold 47% of the group’s wealth. But US billionaires collectively lost 98 billion last year. Of the 67 billionaires who left the list, there were 30 Americans, including media mogul Barry Diller, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Sid Bass, a member of one of Texas’s wealthiest families.

Four of last year’s billionaires were wiped out entirely – Swiss shareholder activist Martin Ebner, German media tycoon Leo Kirch, Brazilian television mogul Roberto Marinho and Turkish banker Mehmet Karamehmet.

A fifth, Swiss businessman Klaus Jacobs, gave it all away. Another whose net worth plummeted was Canadian cable magnate Andre Chagnon, who donated nearly his entire fortune to help fight disease and obesity among children.

Other newsmakers on the list include Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu, who is pumping millions into an effort to rejuvenate Mexico City and has hired former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani to help solve its crime problem, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Europe has 134 billionaires, up from 121 last year. Russia has 10 new billionaires, thanks to higher oil prices, a 38% rise in stocks and a trend toward corporate transparency that has made it easier to identify the wealthiest Russians. Three years ago there were no Russians listed. Now there are 18.

The economic pain has been acute in Asia, where the number of billionaires fell to 61, down 50 percent from the peak in 1996.

Few fortunes are made in a hurry. The average age on the list is 64, but there are 25 billionaires under 40. The richest remains computer company founder Michael Dell, 38, who fell six places to 24, with a net worth of $9.8bn (€9.09bn).