It was exactly a year ago (give or take a day) when the Dow Jones Industrial Average established its all-time high of 14,279. Friday morning it will open at 8,579—a 40 percent drop. Most of us whose meager wealth is tied up in 401(k) plans have suffered a beating of similar magnitude. But just how have the obscenely affluent fared? VF.com took a look at the nation's 25 richest people whose fortunes are primarily derived from one or two publicly traded stocks.
The result? Not so great! On top of the list (or the bottom, depending on how you look at it) is Sheldon Adelson. The cantankerous casino mogul's shares in his Las Vegas Sands have plummeted 91 percent since reaching their peak last October, shedding a staggering $24.8 billion from his net worth. The collective fortune of Google's founding wunderkinds, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, dropped $12 billion. Even Wall Street savior Warren Buffett got whacked, giving up $16.3 billion of his considerable paper wealth.
And you thought you were taking it on the chin.
Name | Company | Billions Lost/$ | Peak Value/$ | Current Value/$ | % Loss |
Sheldon Adelson | Las Vegas Sands | 24.9 | 27.5 | 2.6 | 91% |
Walton clan | Wal-Mart | 21.1 | 108.0 | 86.9 | 19% |
Warren Buffett | Berkshire Hathaway | 16.3 | 66.0 | 49.7 | 25% |
Sergey Brin & Larry Page | 12.1 | 21.6 | 9.5 | 56% | |
Bill Gates | Microsoft | 12.0 | 29.7 | 17.7 | 40% |
Larry Ellison | Oracle | 8.5 | 27.1 | 18.6 | 31% |
Charles & Rupert Johnson | Franklin Resources | 8.5 | 13.3 | 4.8 | 64% |
Harold Hamm | Continental Resouces | 7.6 | 10.3 | 2.7 | 74% |
Steve Ballmer | Microsoft | 6.2 | 15.3 | 9.1 | 40% |
Stephen Schwarzman | Blackstone Group | 4.9 | 6.9 | 2.0 | 71% |
Rupert Murdoch | News Corp. | 4.8 | 7.6 | 2.8 | 63% |
Charles Schwab | Charles Schwab | 4.6 | 8.1 | 3.5 | 57% |
Micky Arison | Carnival Cruise Line | 4.5 | 9.7 | 5.2 | 46% |
Jeff Bezos | Amazon | 4.5 | 10.0 | 5.5 | 45% |
Pierre Omidyar | eBay | 4.4 | 7.2 | 2.8 | 61% |
Michael Dell | Dell | 4.2 | 7.6 | 3.4 | 56% |
Daniel Ochs | Ochs Ziff | 4.1 | 5.0 | 0.9 | 82% |
Sumner Redstone | CBS, Via | 3.6 | 6.0 | 2.4 | 60% |
Steve Wynn | Wynn Resorts | 2.9 | 4.3 | 1.4 | 68% |
Tom Ward | SandRidge Energy | 2.4 | 2.9 | 0.5 | 82% |
Steve Jobs | Apple, Dis | 2.3 | 4.9 | 2.6 | 46% |
Mitchell & Steven Rales | Danaher | 2.2 | 5.5 | 3.3 | 40% |
Gordon Moore | Intel | 2.1 | 4.8 | 2.7 | 44% |
Ronda Stryker & family | Stryker Corp. | 2.1 | 6.4 | 4.3 | 33% |
Dan Duncan | Enterprsie Products | 2.0 | 4.9 | 2.9 | 42% |
Photo illustration by Hamish Robertson.
Photo credits: Bill Gates by Andy Mettler; Sergey Brin by James Duncan Davidson/O'Reilly Media; all others from AP Photos.