richest-self-made-billionaires January 2016
3.
Warren Buffett
Age: 85
Country: US
Industry: Diversified
investments
Source of
wealth: Self-made; Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire
Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett started his prodigious investing
career at a young age. As a child he delivered newspapers on his bike,
and by 11 the precocious Nebraska native had
purchased his first shares in the stock market — Cities Service
Preferred at $38 apiece — and sold them for a $5 profit. He was rejected from Harvard Business School, so
Buffett went to Columbia Business School instead and learned under
iconic value investor Benjamin Graham, who would become a mentor to the budding
financier.
Buffett worked as a securities analyst in the early-1950s
before starting his own investment firm. He bought textile company
Berkshire Hathaway in 1969, transforming it into a holding company that would
house the many lucrative investments that helped build his massive
fortune and earn the nickname "The Oracle of Omaha."
The array
of portfolio companies and investments that made him rich may appear random —
he's bet on companies including Coca-Cola, American Express, Geico, Fruit
of the Loom, Dairy Queen, and General Motors — but they're
all cash-generating machines that offer long-term value. In August
he announced his largest acquisition ever: a $37.2
billion buyout of nuts and bolts maker Precision Castparts.
A frugal
man with a fondness for junk food, perhaps the most
impressive part of Buffett's $60 billion fortune is that it doesn't
include the $21.5 billion he's already given away.
He's good friends with Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, whom he collaborated with to create the Giving
Pledge, a promise for billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth
to charity.
Ref: Business finder

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