14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has added $15.8 billion (€11.5 billion) to his fortune last year, as shares of the Redmond-based tech giant he owns increased by 40 percent.
Citing the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the Korea Times writes that Bill Gates now has a net worth of $78.5 billion (€57.5 billion), enough to secure him the top spot in the world’s richest men charts.
According to the same statistics, the richest men on the planet added $524 billion (€38.3 billion) to their collective net worth, while the aggregate net worth reached $3.7 trillion (€2.7 trillion) on December 31.
In the meantime, Bill Gates needs to deal with some internal Microsoft issues, as some reports are claiming that a number of shareholders want him out of the company as soon as possible.
Sources familiar with the matter have revealed that Bill Gates, who’s currently the non-executive chairman of Microsoft, is under pressure from at least 3 investors to sell his company shares and retire completely, as they believe that Gates could influence Microsoft’s transformations into a devices and services firm.
Bill Gates is also one of those in charge of finding a new CEO, as Steve Ballmer, the one who’s been leading the company for the past 13 years, would retire when a successor is found.
There are no details regarding the person that could take over from Ballmer, but according to some reports, Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally and cloud boss Satya Nadella are both front-runners to take over the vacant job.
In addition, it turns out that former Nokia boss Stephen Elop and internals Kevin Turner and Tony Bates are also being considered for the job.
An official announcement is expected in early 2014, as Microsoft has promised to complete the CEO search as soon as possible in order to complete the “One Microsoft” transformation this year.