Balsillie's Research In Motion helped usher in the smart phone era, but the acceleration of iPhone and Android sales, combined with an embarrassing Blackberry service outage in October, caused the Canadian company's market value to tumble nearly 80 percent.Facebook
Balsillie's Research In Motion helped usher in the smart phone era, but the acceleration of iPhone and Android sales, combined with an embarrassing Blackberry service outage in October, caused the Canadian company's market value to tumble nearly 80 percent.FacebookNew information about Rowlings' estimated $160 million in charitable giving combined with Britain's high tax rates bumped the Harry Potter scribe from our list this year. The seventh Harry Potter film, due out this summer, is predicted to earn $1 billion on its own.REUTERS/Joshua LottKuwaiti investor died of a heart attack in Cairo in April. He had an estimated net worth of $11.5 billion.ReutersIsraeli died at 89 at his home in Tel Aviv. He left his vast fortune including a fleet of ships, a stake in Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Manhattan real estate and a vast art collection to his two sons, Eyal and Idan, who take his place on the list.FacebookHe co-founded Apple with his friend Steve Wozniak in 1976. Jobs who made Apple the hottest and most valuable company on the planet, died after a long battle with cancer at the age of 56 on Oct. 5, 2011. Under his leadership Apple signed to participate in Product Red program, a joint venture by various private sectors to spread AIDS awareness and to raise funds to help eliminate the disease in Africa.ReutersOne of the first leveraged buyout tycoons to hit it big in the 1980's, Forstmann was credited for coining the term barbarians at the gate for Wall Street's LBO businessmen. More recently, he owned sports management firm IMG and dated Padma Lakshmi. (Photo By: Rob Kim/Everett Collection/Newscom)Reuters
This has not been an easy year for businesses and commercial organisations all across the world. Struck by seemingly never-ending waves of recessions and subsequent drops in demand for all but the most essential of products... the 2012 World's Billionaires list, published annually by Forbes, has seen several names drop off the list.
Among those dropped, 117 saw their fortunes dip below the $1bn mark... 12 others, unfortunately, passed away. China witnessed the most drop-outs (36), with the US (18) and Russia (16) behind.
