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Bose, Shriram clamber up Forbes' rich list

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Press Trust Of India Washington
Google Inc Founder-Director Kavitark Ram Shriram and Bose Corporation Chairman Amar Gopal Bose have both moved up in the list of Forbes' 400 richest Americans.
 
Acoustics pioneer Bose and tech wizard Shriram are both at the 242nd position in the list, ahead of Margaret C Whitman, president and CEO of global online auction giant eBay Inc, Howard S Schultz, chairman of coffee retail giant Starbucks, and Hilton Hotel Chairman William Barron Hilton.
 
Bose and Shriram, who are now US citizens, have also beaten telecom giant Motorola's Robert William Galvin, Robert Drayton McLane Jr of the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, and Roy Edward Disney of Walt Disney.
 
While Shriram had entered the list at 258 in 2005, for Bose (ranked 283 in 2005) this is the fifth year in a row in the Forbes 400 list. Shriram and Bose have net worth of $1.5 billion each, up from $1.3 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively, last year.
 
Forbes said for the first time ever, everyone in the Forbes 400 had a net worth of at least $1 billion. The collective net worth of the nation's wealthiest climbed $120 billion this year to $1.25 trillion.
 
Software czar Bill Gates tops the list with a fortune of $53 billion, followed by investment mogul Warren Buffett with a net worth of $46 billion.
 
Forbes said the billions of dollars accumulated by Shriram, a founding board member of online search giant Google, were either self-made or were from the technology business.
 
Shriram, 50, was born and did his schooling in Chennai and currently lives in California. He grabbed the limelight first by creating shopping software solution Junglee, which he later sold to Amazon in 1998.
 
He sold more than half his Google shares since its high-profile initial public offering in 2004, but still owns 1.9 million shares worth $760 million.
 
His other investments include Zazzle (custom-designed T shirts, mugs and stamps), PodShow (online radio) and call centre firm 24/7Customer.com.
 
Bose, 76, earned most of his wealth from Bose Corporation, an acoustics company. He completed his education from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founded Bose Corp in 1964.
 
Bose started out by improving radio communications for Nasa and the US military and today supplies to high-end automobiles like Porsche and Mercedes.

 
 

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First Published: Sep 23 2006 | 12:00 AM IST

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