WhatsApp founders make Forbes’ billionaires list

Jan Koum and Brian Acton, the cofounders of WhatsApp, made Forbes’ annual billionaires’ list with few moments to spare after Facebook offered a total of $19 billion to buy the company.

The deal, if completed, will give Koum a fortune of $6.8 billion, according to Forbes. Acton will be worth at least $3 billion. The two were the subject of a very well-timed profile that Forbes had planned to coincide with its billionaires’ issue, which was released on Monday.

After Facebook made its stunning offer on Feb. 19, Forbes posted its exclusive on the founders online.

Koum and Acton are two of 26 newcomers to the list from tech. Others include Dropbox CEO Drew Houston and Workday cofounder Aneel Bhusri.

At the top of the list were the usual suspects. Microsoft cofounder and chairman Bill Gates, whoonce again became the world’s richest man last May, is No. 1 with $76 billion.

Oracle cofounder and CEO Larry Ellison is on the list at No. 5 with $48 billion. Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin placed at 17 and 19, respectively, with $32.3 billion and $31.8 billion. The two flanked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whose fortune is estimated at $32 billion. Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg came in at No. 21 with $28.5 billion.

Below are the top 10 billionaires on the list:

Bill Gates: $76 billion
Carlos Slim and Helu Family: $72 billion
Amancia Ortega: $64 billion
Warren Buffett: $58.2 billion
Larry Ellison : $48 billion
Charles Koch: $40 billion
David Koch: $40 billion
Sheldon Adelson: $38 billion
Christy Walton and Family: $36.7 billion
Jim Walton: $34.7 billion

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

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