NEW YORK — One of Utah's billionaires grew even richer last year, while the second-richest resident of the state saw his wealth decline.
And the man who had been third among local billionaires isn't even considered a Utahn anymore, according to Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans, released Thursday.
Medical-devices entrepreneur and real-estate developer James LeVoy Sorenson ranked 56th on this year's Forbes list, with an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion. While that dollar figure was up from an estimated $3.7 billion last year, Sorenson's ranking on the list actually fell from 51st in 2004.
Jon M. Huntsman, founder of Salt Lake-based chemical company Huntsman Corp. and father of Utah Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr., continued to drop on the Forbes list, from 92nd place last year to 198th in 2005. His net worth dropped from an estimated $2.3 billion in 2004 to $1.6 billion this year.
As for that third-place "Utahn," Robert Earl Holding, Forbes considered him a resident of Idaho for the purposes of this year's list. Holding, known for his Sinclair Oil company, Little and Grand America hotels and resorts like Snowbasin, saw his ranking jump from 215th last year to 207th this year, and his net worth grew from $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion.
But while the rankings of Utahns changed this year, the names at the top of the list remained much the same as they have been in the past.
Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp.'s co-founder and chairman, was the nation's wealthiest person for the 11th straight year with a net worth of $51 billion, followed again by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman and chief executive Warren Buffett's $40 billion, according to Forbes.
Perhaps more noteworthy is the ascent of Google Inc. founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who were ranked 16th by Forbes with $11 billion each, up from No. 43 last year when they each had a net worth of $4 billion.
Google went public last year, but the Internet search engine returned to the capital markets this month with a follow-up offering of shares that raised $4.18 billion. The company has earned $1 billion since going public.
According to Forbes, whose reporters assembled the list through a series of interviews and company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Brin's and Page's post-IPO wealth is accruing at speeds faster than Gates' wealth after Microsoft went public.
Collectively, the top 10 richest Americans saw their collective net worth climb $125 billion, the magazine said. The poorest members of the list each had a net worth of $900 million.
Paul Allen, a childhood friend of Gates who co-founded Microsoft in 1975, was third wealthiest with $22.5 billion, while Dell Inc.'s chief executive and co-founder Michael Dell was fourth with $18 billion and Lawrence Ellison, chief executive of Oracle Corp., was No. 5 with a net worth of $17 billion.
The rest of the top 10 were members of the Walton family, relatives of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton. Jim Walton and Christy Walton have $15.7 billion, while Forbes says S. Robson Walton has $15.6 billion. Alice Walton has $15.5 billion, and Helen Walton has $15.4 billion.
Others on the Forbes 400 list to enjoy the fruits of high-tech and the Internet included Steven Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive who was No. 11 with $14 billion, and Amazon.com Inc.'s Jeff Bezos, who has $4.8 billion and ranked 42nd.
But a significant number of Forbes 400 members also found there is money to be made in sports. Twenty-seven members of the list are sports investors, including owners of basketball and football teams as well as an English soccer team.
For example, Allen owns the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. And Malcolm Glazer, who ranks No. 258 with $1.3 billion, gained fame in this country but infamy in Britain this past spring after he bought a controlling stake in Manchester United, perhaps the world's best-known soccer team.