Billionaire Blowups of 2008 (finance.yahoo.com)

16 points by noor420 17y ago ↗ HN

11 comments

[ 0.20 ms ] story [ 38.0 ms ] thread

[deleted] 17y ago ↗

(comment deleted)

okeumeni 17y ago ↗

'Bjorgflur Gudmundsson

March net worth: $1.1 billion Current net worth: zero'

WOOW! I don't believe this.

pchristensen 17y ago ↗

"government seizure of Iceland's second largest bank wiped out the $1.1 billion fortune of Gudmundsson, the bank's chairman and biggest shareholder"

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=414491

fallentimes 17y ago ↗

So that's why you diversify :).

vaksel 17y ago ↗

why is a guy who lost .6 billion, in a higher spot than a guy who lost 1.1 billion?

maneesh 17y ago ↗

cause it's in alphabetical order

vaksel 17y ago ↗

oh yeah. Thanks

mtw 17y ago ↗

also because it's just a preview of the list

matt1 17y ago ↗

With $1.0 billion you could invest $10K into 100,000 startups or $100K in 10,000 startups. Surely you could change the world, leave a legacy, and simultaneously generate a profit on that kind of investment, no?

Why doesn't somebody do this?

[dead] unrealwh 17y ago ↗

because you could never assess the viability of that many startups. people would end up coming up to you with made-up business plans just to soak you for 100k. frankly you would be better off just seeding college scholarships.

aaronblohowiak 17y ago ↗

$1.0 in "worth" does not mean $1B in cash. Also, the administration of 10,000 separate investment? How would you mentor the founders? Staff the boards? Would it be worth your time or your investment?