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CNN Live Saturday

Interview with Lea Goldman

Aired March 02, 2002 - 22:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, one great truth about Wall Street is that when the markets do tumble, everyone is affected. For proof, just check the latest issue of "Forbes" magazine and its list of billionaires. This year's list is shorter by 15 percent. 83 people lost enough money in 2001 to fall off the Forbes list. Still others remain in the billionaire club.

Checking the top five, Bill Gates is still the wealthiest man in the world. Behind him, Warren Buffett, German retailers Theo and Karl Albrecht, Microsoft's Paul Allen, and Oracle's Larry Ellison.

Nearly 500 individuals or families made this year's billionaire's list. And joining me with a closer look at some of the world's wealthier citizens is Lea Goldman, a senior reporter from "Forbes."

Thanks for coming in tonight.

LEA GOLDMAN, FORBES MAGAZINE: Thanks for having me.

MESERVE: Lea, first, who fell off the list? Who didn't make it?

GOLDMAN: We saw some big, big tech losers this year, including AOL/Time Warner chief Steve Case, Jerry Yang from Yahoo, and the notorious of late, Gary Winnick of Global Crossing.

MESERVE: Those who stayed on the list, did their worth decline by and large?

GOLDMAN: Yes, almost half of the list, about 250, saw declines this year. Only a quarter actually enhanced their wealth at all. So by and large, it was a brutal year for the billionaires. They all took -- they pretty much all took hits.

MESERVE: Did anybody come onto the list this year?

GOLDMAN: Yes, we did see some interesting newcomers, including a Turkish billionaire who has really made a fortune out of soda ash. Doesn't sound like much, but it's actually a basic component of glass. So he's very big in industrials in Turkey.

And we saw a very young, new 18-year-old. Actually, the youngest member to ever be on Forbes World's billionaire's list, an 18-year-old German high-schooler, who this summer when he turned 18, inherited a vast real estate empire from his father, who had left it for him when he passed away some years ago. So he's the youngest member of our list. And we're pretty excited to watch him over the next few years.

MESERVE: September 11, what kind of impact did that have, if any on this list?

GOLDMAN: Sure. I mean before September 11, the billionaires were seeing declines, just because of the overall economic recession that were affecting every economy. But September 11 really enhanced the blows that they were feeling.

Some billionaires felt it more specifically than others, including Australian billionaire Frank Lowe, who owned the subterranean shopping center below the World Trade Center. He had actually signed the lease about seven weeks before September 11. He, in fact, lost one employee in the disaster.

And also, a single poor billionaire Qwekling (ph) Bang owned the Millennium Hotel, which sat adjacent to the World Trade Center. And Richard Branson from the U.K., the guy who owns Virgin, saw some declines. He was expecting to turn a profit with Virgin, but in fact had to dramatically reduce flights post-September 11, and instead took a pretty nasty hit.

MESERVE: OK, what about the girls? Is there any of us on the list?

GOLDMAN: Well, unfortunately, we didn't see the women make tremendous gains this year. Only 35 women appear on the list. That's just seven percent. Mostly, they are errors to existing fortunes. There's actually one self-made female billionaire, and that's Doris Fisher, who founded the Gap with her husband in 1969.

MESERVE: But the Gap's on hard times, isn't it?

GOLDMAN: Yes, we're definitely keeping close, close watch on her. It would be a shame to lose her from the list. We're also keeping our eyes on Oprah Winfrey, who's been making steady gains over the last few years. And we wouldn't be surprised at all if she finally hit the billionaire's club next year. Martha Stewart was on the list just a couple of years ago, but her stock's been battered of late. So we didn't see her make the list this year.

MESERVE: Along with K-Mart, her stock's been down I guess, huh?

GOLDMAN: Yes. Yes.

MESERVE: How close is Oprah?

GOLDMAN: Oprah? Last time we looked at her was hovering at about $800 million. So you know, factoring in the enormous success of her magazine, of her TV empire, it's about a year away.

MESERVE: How many African-Americans are on the list? Would she be one of the first?

GOLDMAN: She would actually be the first female African- American. We do have two African-Americans: Robert Johnson, the founder of BET, Black Entertainment Television, and Michael Lee Chin, who's got an interesting story. He's Jamaican and half Chinese. And he's a mutual fund manager in Canada. Those are our two sole African- Americans on the list.

MESERVE: Well, people want to always know whose marriageable on this list.

GOLDMAN: We have tons, tons of interesting bachelors, including New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who's on the block. Although we are -- he might be dating someone. There's also -- actually, the coverboy for the new issue, Dill Schwed (ph), he's an Israeli billionaire, 34-years-old. He is a master of cyber security, does very well on that front.

Also, some of the Ziff boys, they are heirs to the Ziff-Davis publishing fortune. And they live in New York. So there's a lot of interesting, young, good looking bachelors to keep your eyes on.

MESERVE: OK, Lea Goldman from Forbes. Thanks a lot, appreciate it.

GOLDMAN: Thank you.

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