We all know billionaires often come with huge egos to match. Now it seems the media that track the wealthiest people in the world, are engaging in some serious chest-thumping of their own, claiming their stats on the max-earners are the best.
Sometimes the billionaires themselves jump into the fray, pitting one media tracker against another. When Prince Alwaleed learned last week that Forbes in its annual ranking of the world’s billionaires had subtracted about $9 billion from his wealth, he released an angry blast claiming that there was bias against the Middle East since it did not discount any other potentially nettlesome details in calculating the net worth of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú.
He’s not cooperating with Forbes anymore, he said, and just to add insult to injury said he would cooperate with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Forbes countered with a 3,000-word smackdown written by Kerry Dolan, its wealth editor, under the headline “Prince Alwaleed and the Curious Case of Kingdom Holding Stock.” It pointed to bizarre stock moves that seem to occur right before Forbes calculates its list.
Bloomberg prides itself on discovering heretofore unknown billionaires, and on Feb. 4 calculated that Lynsi Torres, the 30-year-old heiress of In-N-Out Burger, is worth $1.1 billion.
Not so fast, said Forbes staffer Caleb Melby, who claims “the burger chain is a darling among consumers and is growing rapidly, but it’s doubtfully worth $1 billion.” By the Forbes calculation, she’s worth about $500 million.
And a spokesman insisted that the somewhat secretive modeling process — and editorial judgments that result — are what gives the Forbes list its authority.
“Rather than blindly accept information, we verify it ourselves and, when necessary, develop models that give a truer measure of someone’s worth,” said a Forbes spokeswoman. “That independent voice that calls it like it sees it has been a hallmark of the Forbes brand for almost a century.” –Keith J. Kelly
Shrinking heads
The executive search firms must be thanking the C-suite gods for all the corporate turmoil last week.
“Business insecular decline seeks new boss adept at right-sizing cost structure” appears to be the current rubric.
Whowill take the poison chalice at Time Inc.? Headhunters will have a hard time finding someone to replace out going CEO Laura Lang.The former digital advertising executive is leaving after a year on the job, replacing Jack Griffin, the Meredith boss who lasted five months before Jeff Bewkes lowered the boom.
Time Inc.’s isn’t the only major search. Groupon bosses are looking for someone to take over from the quirky founder, Andrew Mason, who was fired by the board. In an interview, Groupon Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky said the firmis looking fora more senior hand who“has experience dealing with the issues we’re dealing with…who has been there and done that.”
Then there are two major vacancies in radio. Can Liberty Media possibly find a successor to fill Mel Karmazin’s boots at Sirius? The company currently has an acting CEO in James Meyer, who was praised by Greg Maffei at a recent conference for his eloquence. Liberty’s search continues, however.
The bigger surprise is at online radio company Pandora, where CEO Joe Kennedy is headed for the exit. Pandora arguably needs a young gun to smooth the way with the music companies that are teed off at Pandora’s efforts to lower their royalty rates.–Claire Atkinson
Courtship
He’s facing charges for masterminding the biggest insider-trading profit ever — but at least he’s not a creep.
Former SAC Capital trader Mathew Martoma was forced to sit through the “Cannibal Cop” trial last week as he waited for a scheduled hearing in his far less sexy insider-trading case.
Martoma, who stands accused of helping Steve Cohen’s SAC earn a whopping $276 million on illegal tips, packed into the crowded galley at 40 Foley Square on Tuesday with his wife, Rosemary, and his white-shoe lawyer Charles Stillman.
The three sat patiently for more than an hour as the defense played for the jury recorded video testimony of the Russian co-founder of Darkfetishnet.com.
Gilberto Valle, who went to trial for an alleged plot to kidnap and cook women, frequented the website.
At one point, one of Valle’s lawyers asked the witness, Sergey Merenkov, how much membership on the site costs. He said it’s $15.95 for three months, at which Rosemary, a pediatrician, turned to her husband and remarked, “That’s cheap!” –Kaja Whitehouse