Private shareholders suffer big losses from quoted company investments

With all the focus of the new AS Business specifications on business start-ups and small businesses, it easy to forget the importance of larger quoted companies.  Private shareholders who have invested some of their personal wealth in the stock market have had a tough time according to some new research…

Bill Gates knocked off the top spot in the ‘World’s Richest’ rankings

US investment guru Warren Buffett has beaten his friend and occasional card playing partner Bill Gates to the title of the world’s richest man - according to the most recent Forbes ‘Rich List’.

The Microsoft co-founder had topped the Forbes business magazine’s rich-list for the past 13 years, but Mr Buffett’s wealth increased by $10bn last year to $62bn.  Mr Gates’s fortune climbed by $2bn during the same period, putting him down to third on the list with a fortune of $58bn. He was narrowly squeezed from second place by the Mexican communications magnate Carlos Slim Helu, whose $60bn net worth has doubled in the past two years.