Jobs Makes Forbes Top Billionaire List

September 20th, 2007 at 3:00 PM - News by Jeff Gamet

Apple CEO Steve Jobs landed on the Forbes 400 list of top billionaires for 2007. He may not have come in at first place, but a billionaire is still a billionaire.

The threshold for the 25th anniversary Forbes 400 list was US$1.3 billion, and Mr. Jobs cleared that with room to spare. He came in at number 56 with $5.7 billion.

Forbes described Mr. Jobs in part as an "iigodi on magazine cover for advent of iPhone -- slickest, most-hyped gadget ever. Black-clad digi-god suddenly a Dark Angel falling to earth. His creation sells a million units in 10 weeks at $600; instant $200 price cut riles disciples. Gets Tinseltown takedown when he tries to muscle Hollywood as he did music biz; NBC Universal pulls shows from iTunes. Result: iFlop for Apple TV."

Despite the negative spin Forbes gave to Mr. Jobs, the description also touts his accomplishments with Pixar and Disney, his Apple comeback, and ends with "Never mind the setbacks. Still coolest tech superstar ever."

Topping out the list was Microsoftis Bill Gates with $59 billion, investor Warren Buffet with $52 billion, Comdex creator Sheldon Adelson with $28 billion, Oracle founder Larry Ellison with $26 billion, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin with $18.5 billion.