Ellison closes in on Gates

"Who is the richest of ‘m all?" Microsoft's Bill Gates or

Oracle’s Larry Ellison. This week, it is still Gates, by all accounts,

although he is close to losing at least one of the titles. When counting only

the stock both men own in their respective companies, Gates had $51.5 billion at

the end of day Tuesday when Microsoft stock was worth $69 a share. Ellison was

not far behind at $50.1 billion.

But Gates remains by far the richest overall. He has amassed some $10 billion

in assets through investments financed with the proceeds from the sale of

millions of his shares of Microsoft stock. Ellison, by comparison,

"only" has $200 million in such outside wealth. Not too far behind

Ellison and Gates is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who’s Microsoft assets

are worth about $30 billion. Warren Buffett, a close friend and bridge partner

of Gates, is the fourth richest. His investments are worth $28 billion.

Paper wealth or not, Ellison is likely to be looking forward to the day

he’ll be ahead of Gates. Over the years, Ellison has made a career out of

criticizing Gates and Microsoft. "I'm sure Larry is very happy about what

is happening. "Larry is an intense competitor and he can't help but look at

this at proof that he is winning the battle to become a major player in the New

Economy while Microsoft might be headed toward the second tier," said an

analyst Joshua Greenbaum who has followed Oracle since the 1980s.

Ellison’s rise in to the top of the World’s richest list has come on the

meteoric 428 percent boost in Oracle’s stock price in the past year. The

company has focused intensely on selling "e-commerce" solution

software and strategies to corporate customers.