I always find it strange that the “wealth” of people like Larry Ellison is based on the public market price of their companies. He owns 42% or Oracle, and so there is no way that he could realise that value at current market rates. Oracle has more debt than it has assets, and a significant proportion of that debt has been used to implement a stock buy back, putting cash in Larry’s pocket and increasing his ownership share of the company, and therefore his nominal wealth. If the company can keep borrowing it could buy back more of the stock giving him majority ownership of a company that would technically be worth less than nothing, and become the richest man in the world.<p>Wizardry!<p>(I know that’s not how valuation of companies like this works, but even so…)