LE FIGARO : Le milliardaire de 95 ans, généreux bienfaiteur de la fondation philanthropique de Bill Gates depuis près de vingt ans, attend les conclusions d’un audit externe sur les liens passés de l’organisation avec le délinquant sexuel Jeffrey Epstein.
Le chèque ne tombera pas. Contre toute attente, Warren Buffett, 95 ans, a décidé de différer son traditionnel don de mi-année à la fondation Gates, rapporte ce lundi le Wall Street Journal, qui cite des proches du milliardaire. Le patron de Berkshire Hathaway attend de connaître les conclusions de l’enquête externe menée par l’organisation sur ses liens avec Jeffrey Epstein. Sa décision pourrait être repoussée jusqu’à sa traditionnelle lettre de Thanksgiving, en novembre.
La fondation Gates est au cœur de controverses en raison des relations entretenues par son président, Bill Gates, avec Jeffrey Epstein. La publication, en janvier, de courriels par le département américain de la Justice a également mis en évidence des échanges entre le délinquant sexuel décédé et des membres du personnel de la fondation Gates. Son directeur général, Mark Suzman, a ainsi commandé un audit externe pour évaluer les interactions passées de l’organisation avec Jeffrey Epstein. Les conclusions sont attendues d’ici la fin de l’été. » | Par Le Figaro avec Reuters | mardi 30 juin 2026
Showing posts with label Bill Gates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Gates. Show all posts
July 01, 2026
October 16, 2018
Paul Allen on Gates, Microsoft
January 27, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: People’s plutocrat Bill Gates talks about friendly rivalry, and how to get bankers to part with their money.
For America’s wealthiest citizen, austerity is relative. The retinue of staff and the private jet hint at a fortune said to be approaching £40 billion. As he told pupils at a south London school he visited this week: “If I hadn’t given my money away, I’d have had more than anyone else on the planet. Ninety-nine per cent of it will go.”
In an era when the wealthiest are society’s pariahs, the Microsoft founder has become the people’s plutocrat. Although some diseases, such as malaria, remain rife, his charitable foundation and his lobbying have borne results. In the past year, not a single citizen in India contracted polio.
“People think aid is abstract and thousands of miles away. I go there and see it. I’m intent on making sure that my money gets to people who need it, and I come back and say it’s working.” This message has been heeded by “Cameron and George,” who have promised to hit the recognised goal of spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on aid.
Is he not disappointed that Mr Osborne will effectively be cutting the budget by more than £1.1 billion over three years, because the economy is shrinking? “I have nothing but praise for the UK. [The drop] is certainly unfortunate, but I can hardly complain about it. 0.7 per cent is the gold standard, and most countries aren’t living up to that.” Read on and comment » | Mary Riddell | Friday, January 27, 2012
My comment:
Bill Gates must be one of the most unselfish men on the planet! He's got a golden heart. Wouldn't it be wonderful if just some of the mega-rich followed in his footsteps? What a wonderful world it would be if more people thought like him! – © Mark
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August 04, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Bill Gates's and Warren Buffett's campaign draws in top names including George Lucas and Michael Bloomberg
The world of philanthropy got a huge financial boost today as more than 30 American billionaires pledged to give away at least half of their fortunes to charitable causes, signing up to a campaign launched by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
In an unprecedented mass commitment, top figures including New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg, the hotel heir Barron Hilton, CNN media mogul Ted Turner, and the Star Wars director George Lucas lent their names to the "giving pledge", an initiative founded last month to encourage America's richest families to commit money to "society's most pressing problems".
The pledge is not a legally binding contract but is described as a moral commitment. Buffett, the legendary Nebraska-based financier known as the "sage of Omaha", welcomed the influx of support: "At its core, the giving pledge is about asking wealthy families to have important conversations about their wealth and how it will be used. We're delighted that so many people are doing that." >>> Andrew Clark in New York | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Picture Gallery: US billionaires to give away fortunes to charity: Forty of the richest families and individuals in the US have committed to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes by taking the 'giving pledge', a campaign launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett >>> | Wednesday, August 04, 2010
June 01, 2010
Chairman of Kingdom Holding Company Prince Alwaleed bin Talal with billionaire businessman Bill Gates at the 14th Microsoft CEO Summit in Washington, Seattle. The summit was attended by 100 top CEOs. Prince Alwaleed and Gates are co-owners of the Four Seasons group of hotels and resorts. [Source: Arab News]
October 01, 2009
LE TEMPS: Bill Gates reste l’homme le plus riche des Etats-Unis, selon le classement du magazine Forbes publié jeudi. Sa fortune est estimée à 50 milliards de dollars. Il devance l’investisseur Warren Buffett.
Les Américains les plus riches sont un peu plus pauvres en 2009. Même la fortune de Bill Gates, toujours en tête du peloton, a fondu de 7 milliards de dollars, selon le classement des 400 Américains les plus fortunés publié mercredi par Forbes . Le fondateur de Microsoft dispose d’une fortune estimée à 50 milliards de dollars.
Au total, la richesse de ces 400 personnes s’élève en 2009 à 1270 milliards de dollars contre 1.570 milliards en 2008. Trois-cent milliards de dollars sont partis en fumée dans les douze derniers mois. Les dix premiers du classement ont perdu collectivement 39,2 milliards, précise le magazine Forbes dans un communiqué.
Les bourses chancelantes, la chute de l’immobilier, les escroqueries et les divorces sont à l’origine de l’appauvrissement de 314 milliardaires. Ces facteurs en ont fait disparaître 32 de la liste. Parmi ces derniers, on note l’ancien financier Allen Stanford, en prison pour escroquerie, et un vice-président du géant d’internet Google, Omid Kordestani, exclu du classement après un divorce onéreux. Numéro deux sur la liste, l’homme d’affaires et investisseur Warren Buffett …>>> ATS/AFP | Jeudi 01 Octobre 2009
March 11, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: The number of billionaires across the globe slumped by almost a third in the last 12 months as many of the world's richest men and women fell victim to the economic recession.
Those worth over £1billion fell from 1,125 in 2008 to just 793, as a combined $2.4 trillion (£1.74 trillion) was wiped off the value of their collective 2008 $4.4 trillion fortune.
As a result, the average billionaire saw their net worth fall from $3.9bn to $3bn in the year, as the value of investments, property and other assets all plunged.
The annual survey of who's who and who's worth what in the upper echelons of the world's entrepreneurial classes, the just-released Forbes 2009 World Billionaires list reveals the damage that has been wreaked on the fortunes of many.
Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world last year with a fortune of $62bn, lost $25bn as a result of declines in the value of his investments, many of which are in the insurance and financial sectors which have been hardest hit by the global recession.
Taking his crown is Bill Gates, who, in spite of reclaiming the top spot in the annual Forbes survey after a year's absence, still saw his Microsoft fortune fall by almost a third, down $18bn to $40bn. >>> By James Quinn in New York | Wednesday, March 11, 2009
leJDD.fr:
Galerie de photos: Les riches deviennent moins riches: Comme chaque année, le magazine Forbes publie son classement annuel des grandes fortunes mondiales. Le crû 2008 a un petit air de crise. >>> | Jeudi 12 Mars 2009
BBC:
Watch BBC video: Billionaires Drop Off Rich List: The financial crisis is taking its toll on the world's richest people, wiping 332 names off the Forbes Magazine's 'rich list' of world billionaires. >>> Caroline Hepker | Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
September 18, 2008
GALA.fr: Pas de doute pour le magazine Forbes. Avec son compte en banque frisant les 57 milliards de dollars, Bill Gates est bien l’homme le plus riche du monde depuis 1993!
Bill Gates est indétronable. Le fondateur de Microsoft est depuis quinze ans l’homme le plus riche de la planète. Bien que son pécule ait diminué 2 milliards de dollars depuis l’année dernière, selon Forbes, le tout jeune retraité reste à la tête de 57 milliards de dollars. C’est sûr, avec une somme pareille, Dr Bill va pouvoir continuer avec sa femme sa croisade contre la misère dans le monde! Pour la 15e année consécutive, le milliardaire est sur la première marche du podium >>> | Jeudi 18 septembre 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Relié) >>>
March 09, 2008
THE INDEPENDENT: The bad news for Bill Gates is that, after 13 years at the top, he has just lost his ranking as the richest man in the world. The good news is that he has been overtaken by his bridge partner. That man is Warren Buffett, a friend of the Microsoft boss since 1991, when they began to play bridge together – and also to discuss business a little.
In a way, their friendship is an obvious one. As Buffett told the Wall Street Journal eight years ago: "It's hard to have friends when everybody around you wants money. Bill hasn't sold me a computer and I haven't sold him candy. Neither one of us wants anything from the other."
Bill did get something from Warren, however. In 2006, Buffett, then 76, announced that he would be giving almost his entire fortune – which now stands at $62bn (£30.8bn) – to the medical foundation set up by Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda. It is a bequest of almost unimaginable scale, more mindboggling still when added to what was already the world's largest charitable foundation.
The bracketing of Buffett with Gates now seems complete. Yet as businessmen they are very different – and Buffett is much the more unusual type of multi-billionaire. Bill Gates, although in his own way unique, is more typical of the sort of businessman who makes (rather than inherits) a gargantuan fortune.
Such people tend either to develop some entirely new industrial process – or, at the very least, a better form of mousetrap. If they can add to their technological creativity the nerve and courage to retain financial control of their industrial process, then the money just cascades into their pockets faster than they can count it.
For Gates, the process was the mass use of digital language. For John Rockefeller, it was the vertically integrated oil industry, from well-head to end-user. For Henry Ford, it was the mass production of motor cars. Yet Warren Buffett has invented nothing, not even a slightly better mousetrap. All he does is invest in other people's businesses – but with a skill unmatched in the long and turbulent history of capitalism.
Buffett has expressed this more bluntly than anyone else could (or would), saying: "I was born at the right time and place, where the ability to allocate capital really counts. I'm adapted to this society. I won the ovarian lottery. I got the ball that said 'capital allocator--United States'."
This is characteristically modest of the unassuming Mr Buffett. The allocation of capital is an immensely competitive business, yet he has stayed at the top of the investment tree for more than 40 years. Others may flame out but old Warren keeps steaming on, beating the Dow Jones average for year after year... after year.
The reason for the astounding durability of Buffett's success at investment is also something which distinguishes him from almost all other people who are thought of as hotshot money managers. Warren Buffett is almost pathologically risk-averse. As he puts it: "I don't look to jump over 7ft bars. I look around for 1ft bars that I can step over."
Typically, he will spend months – or longer – scrutinising the balance sheets of mature and unfashionable companies. When he has finally decided that the stock market has greatly undervalued them, he moves in – with cash and on a vast scale.
Thus it is that his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, has significant percentages of such emblems of middle-of-the-road America as Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, American Express, Kraft and The Washington Post. You will look in vain through the immense Buffett portfolio for any hi-tech stocks – although for sentimental reasons he has retained 100 shares in Microsoft. Towards the end of the last century, Buffett was widely ridiculed for shunning the dotcom frenzy… >>> By Dominic Lawson
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
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