Bill Gates

No cameras are permitted. No transcripts are available. Only shareholders may attend. But we have a ringside seat at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. Here's what Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha said in this year's Q&A.

What terrifies a man as smart and successful as Bill Gates? What's the real reason for his early retirement? These two words.

Facebook's IPO has focused yet another spotlight on its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. But beyond the hoopla, there's another, quieter story to be found in the wunderkind CEO -- the lessons that can be gleaned from his life.

You don't have to be a billionaire -- nor a jolly, white-bearded figure out of folklore -- to make the holiday season remarkably sweeter for a stranger. Or a lot of strangers. Over the past few years, ordinary people across the country have been taking up the calling of Larry Stewart, the original Secret Santa.

Microsoft's Windows 95 rollout presented the most challenges in the company's history, leading to several last-minute changes to technical features that would no longer support a rival software maker's word processor, Bill Gates testified Monday in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by the creator of WordPerfect.

The nation's wealthiest are worth a combined $1.53 trillion, according to Forbes. And while there are many familiar faces on this year's list of the richest Americans, a younger group of entrepreneurs are marching their way up the ranks.

Today's philanthropists are increasingly uncomfortable with the "write-a-check-and-forget-about-it" model. From Bill Gates to Philip Berber, they are taking a more active role in the way their money is given and the ways in which it is spent.

With more and more financial transactions being conducted electronically, it's easy to forget the physicality of money. What a dollar weighs, or a pile of them. So just for fun, let's start piling up the Benjamins and see what a pound -- or 10, or 100, or a ton -- of C-notes will buy.

This is Forbes' 25th year of tracking global wealth and it was one to remember. The 2011 Billionaires List breaks two records: total number of listees (1,210) and combined wealth ($4.5 trillion). This horde surpasses the gross domestic product of Germany, one of only six nations to have fewer...