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Gates' wealth shrinks
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April 24, 2000: 6:51 p.m. ET
Oracle CEO Ellison closes in on Microsoft chief's title as richest man
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Larry Ellison's days of playing second fiddle to Microsoft's Bill Gates may soon be over, at least in terms of personal wealth, after the Oracle Corp. chief on Monday closed the gap between them to a mere $2 billion.
 The paths of the two technology mavericks, bitter rivals in the realm of developing and marketing software, drew closer to one another on Monday as Gates' fortune - on paper - lost another $10 billion in value, to stand at a mere $52 billion.
While still the world's richest individual, Gates, the chairman of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates), has seen his fortune trimmed by $40 billion since last year, when Forbes magazine pegged his worth at more than $85 billion - more than the combined wealth of the planet's second-, third- and fourth-richest individuals, excluding royalty and dictators.
 The most common method for calculating the net worth of billionaires is to look at the millions of shares they hold in the public companies they founded.
According to Microsoft's most recent public data, Gates, 44, owns some 787 million Microsoft shares, which have slumped 50 percent since late last year and are off some 42 percent from just a month ago amid concerns over sluggish PC market growth, the company's legal troubles and a slump in the technology market.
Microsoft shares closed at 66-5/8, off 12-7/16, or 16 percent on Monday afternoon. 
But while Microsoft shares have floundered, Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates) stock has strengthened, managing to hold its ground during the technology sectors recent woeful times. On Monday, Oracle shares climbed 1-7/16 to 72-7/16, a 2 percent gain from Friday's close.
Ellison's 689.7 million shares of Redwood City, Calif.-based Oracle, which is known for its corporate business applications software, on Monday topped $50 billion, more than three times the value that Forbes reported last year.
 The personal fortunes of Gates and Ellison, 55, dwarf those of the richest runners-up in the United States. According the most recent data available, investment guru Warren Buffett's holding in his Berkshire Hathaway is worth about $28.5 billion, while the stock holdings of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Microsoft chief executive Steven Ballmer, and Dell Computer Corp. (DELL: Research, Estimates) chairman and CEO Michael Dell hover between $15 billion and $17 billion.
On the other hand, the fortune of Masayoshi Son, founder and president of Japan's Internet investment vehicle Softbank, is said to be very near to that of Gates and Ellison, thanks to the company's 300 high-tech investments. Softbank's holdings include Yahoo! and E*TRADE.
Another global contender is India's Azim Hasham Premji, 54, chairman of the Bangalore-based Wipro Corp., whose wealth is valued at more than $30 billion. He owns 75 percent ownership of Wipro, India's second-biggest software exporter, which also has an extensive consumer products arm.
 Comprehensive wealth data on most of these men is somewhat hard to determine, since the government does not require the strict reporting of all investments and assets, such as a fleet of yachts or a vault full of Faberge eggs.
According to Reuters, Gates, in addition to his Microsoft stake, has outside investments valued at roughly $5 billion. What's more, he and his wife Melinda have given away $20 billion to charity.
Looking at the big picture, don't feel too badly for Gates - his $52 billion bank account still exceeds the gross domestic product of OPEC member Libya and the Baltic nation of Lithuania - combined. 
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