Until 2007, Bill Gates was the richest man in the world by virtue of his stake in Microsoft MSFT. Then Carlos Slim Helu, the famous Mexican investor, aided by his stake in cell phone operator American Movil, wrested the crown from Gates. According to Bloomberg , yesterday Gates became the richest man again, although Forbes, which has been tracking Gates’ wealth for the past quarter-century, says that the Microsoft co-founder has not yet regained the top spot.
On the surface, the change in fortunes seems perverse; mobile phones are expanding in Mexico whereas Microsoft’s biggest weapon Windows 8 is a dud. During the earnings call Dell DELL -0.22% which is one of Microsoft’s largest customers for Windows 8 commented that Windows 8 had not led to the growth they had hoped for. The conference call was polite, but my take from the tone and data from the conference call is a confirmation that Windows 8 is a dud. Windows 8 was supposed to make Microsoft competitive with Apple AAPL in tablets. The reality is surface tablets from Microsoft languish while iPads from Apple remain the kings.
The trigger behind the recent rise in Bill Gates’ wealth is Xbox. Unless you have been under a rock you would know that Xbox has become a lot more than the gaming console of years past. Microsoft has been trying to position Xbox as an entertainment hub. Excitement is building over the Microsoft event scheduled for May 22 Microsoft is expected to unveil the successor to Xbox 360.
Security around the next generation Xbox has been tight but speculation abounds. There is no confirmation of what the next Xbox will be called, but the media has almost universally dubbed it Xbox 720. Speculation is that Xbox will be powered by an 8-core CPU, will support WiFi, will support Blu-Ray, and will require an internet connection to play games. Graphics is expected to be powered by an AMD Radeon card. The most interesting speculation is that Xbox is specifically designed to become a set-top box for television…Read more at Forbes
