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Bill Gates appears to have been dethroned as
the world's richest man. But based on his past comments, he probably
isn't disappointed. The Microsoft Corp. chairman and co-founder has
been overtaken on the world's richest list by Mexican
telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim, according to a Mexican financial
news service quoted by Reuters.

A 27 percent surge in the stock price of Slim's wireless company,
American Movil, in the second quarter has put his worth at close to
$67.8 billion, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Reuters quoted financial tracker Eduardo Garcia, from Sentido Comun, an
online financial publication. Garcia estimated that Gates was worth
$59.2 billion, Reuters reported.

At a Microsoft conference in Redmond last year, advertising executive
and TV host Donny Deutsch asked Gates if he would be upset if someday
he were no longer the world's richest man.

"I wish I wasn't," Gates replied. "There's nothing good that comes out of that."

"It's better than being second," Deutsch said.

"No," Gates replied. "You get more visibility as a result of it."

On this spring's Forbes list, Slim was just behind Warren Buffett, an
investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, who had been second on the list
for years.

Forbes
reported then that Gates, who had topped its list for 13 years, and
Buffett were quickly losing ground to Slim. In April, Forbes reported
that Slim had overtaken Buffett and was on his way to passing Gates.