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Forbes: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg worth more than Steve Jobs
Facebook whiz kid Mark Zuckerberg is now America's 35th wealthiest person with a net worth of $6.9 billion, jumping ahead of fellow big name Bay Area residents like Apple's Steve Jobs, Google's Eric Schmidt and discount stock brokerage magnate Charles Schwab, according to Forbes magazine.
Photo by Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle
The magazine on Wednesday released its annual Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America, topped as usual by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, with a net worth of $54 billion, and Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett at $45 billion.
But Zuckerberg's net worth jumped by $4.9 billion in the past year, based on private equity deals that place the value of the Palo Alto company he co-founded at about $23 billion.
In the Bay Area, the only people ahead of Zuckerberg were Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, 66, who was number 3 overall at $27 billion, and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both 37, who tied for 11th place with $15 billion.
Zuckerberg leaped ahead of Apple's 55-year-old CEO, who was number 42 on the list with $6.1 billion. Jobs' total was boosted by the $4.4 billion in Walt Disney Co. stock he acquired in the sale of Emeryville's Pixar Animation Studios, according to Forbes' Stephen Bertoni.
At 26, Zuckerberg is one of the two youngest billionaires on the list - Harvard roommate and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, 26, came in at number 290 with $1.4 billion.
Movie fans will be seeing Hollywood's reportedly unfavorable version of how Zuckerberg, Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin (number 356 on the Forbes list with $1.15 billion) founded Facebook six years ago in the upcoming movie "The Social Network," which hits theaters Oct. 1.
Then again, the Facebook CEO is reportedly set to go on Oprah on Friday to announce he is donating $100 million to help the troubled Newark, N.J., school system.
| September 22 2010 at 05:50 PM
Mark Hurd resurfaces as Oracle president
Mark Hurd, who stunned Silicon Valley exactly one month ago when he resigned from Hewlett-Packard Co. under tabloid news circumstances, resurfaced Monday as a president of Oracle Corp.
Hurd, 53, will report to Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief executive officer and a staunch supporter who sharply criticized HP's board of directors for ousting Hurd.
"Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle," Ellison said in a press release. "There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark. Oracle's future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise. Mark pioneered the integration of hardware with software when Teradata was a part of NCR."
Hurd, who also joins Oracle's board of directors, reportedly replaces co-president Charles Phillips, who is leaving the company.
"I believe Oracle's strategy of combining software with hardware will enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise servers and storage," Hurd said in the release. "Exadata is just the beginning. We have some exciting new systems we are going to announce later this month at Oracle OpenWorld. I'm excited to be a part of the most innovative technology team in the IT industry."
The release also quoted co-President Safra Catz.
"Mark is an outstanding executive and a proven winner," Catz said. "I look forward to working with him for years to come. As Oracle continues to grow we need people experienced in operating a $100 billion business."
Hurd resigned as HP's chief executive on Aug. 6 in the wake of a sexual harassment claim by an outside contractor, Jodie Fisher, a former R-rated movie actress and reality TV show contestant. The claim was settled privately, but the investigation unearthed payments Hurd made to her that violated the company's code of conduct.
Ellison, however, immediately sprang to Hurd's defense and ignited speculation that Hurd might move on to Oracle. In a letter to the New York Times, Ellison liked Hurd's ouster to the 1986 ouster of Apple Inc.'s board forced out co-founder Steve Jobs.
"The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago," Ellison wrote. "That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them."
| September 06 2010 at 05:50 PM
DOJ files fraud suit against Oracle
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit alleging that Oracle Corp. defrauded the government through a software contract that involved hundreds of millions of dollars, after a company whistleblower stepped forward.
The agreement with the General Services Administration, in effect from 1998 to 2006, required the Redwood Shores software giant to extend its commercial discounts to government customers, the DOJ said in a statement released Thursday. The suit claims Oracle misrepresented its sales practices, leaving the government with far inferior deals.
"We take seriously allegations that a government contractor has dealt dishonestly with the United States," said Tony West, assistant attorney general for the civil division of the DOJ, in a statement. "When contractors misrepresent their business practices to the government, taxpayers suffer."
The Justice Department brought the complaint under the False Claims Act, which encourages private citizens with knowledge of fraud to file suits on behalf of the government. The lawsuit against Oracle was originally brought by Paul Frascella, senior director of contract services at Oracle, the department said.
Oracle didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
| July 29 2010 at 01:56 PM
Oracle president admits affair; SF billboard rumor untrue
A co-president at Oracle Corp. acknowledged he had an affair with a woman he was pictured embracing on billboards in New York and Atlanta, after their unexplained appearance sparked a tabloid frenzy.
Charles Phillips, also a board member at the Redwood Shores business software company, told NBC Bay Area: "I had an eight-and-half year serious relationship with YaVaughnie Wilkins. My divorce proceedings began in 2008. The relationship with Ms. Wilkins has since ended and we both wish each other well."
Silicon Valley gossip blog Gawker broke the news of the billboards, which showed Phillips with his arms around Wilkins, both beaming. The ads included the message "You are my soulmate forever!" and featured a link to an online gallery with additional photos of the two together, CharlesPhillipsAndYaVaughnieWilkins.com.
The Web site designer, whose business is based in San Jose, told the popular blog he was hired by Wilkins and informed the site was a gift for Phillips.
Earlier reports that a similar billboard went up in San Francisco were not correct, as the recent storms prevented the ad from being placed.
The theory advanced by Gawker and others is that Wilkins was a spurned lover seeking revenge. Attempts to contact Wilkins were unsuccessful. Her last known address was in Hillsborough.
The site was inaccessible on Friday and the billboards have been or are being taken down. Clear Channel, which owned at least one of the billboards involved, declined to comment.
In February 2009, Phillips was appointed a member of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, according to his biography on Oracle's Web site. He joined the company in 2003 from investment bank Morgan Stanley. Oracle didn't respond to an inquiry from The Chronicle.
From a business perspective, observers view the incident as much ado about nothing.
"If somebody is handsome and rich, the honey bees will come," said Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research. "But does it mean it's bad for business? No. I think this has zero impact whatsoever."
| January 22 2010 at 01:08 PM
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