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Lego (actually Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen) in Forbes:

Our last census of the world's wealthy last March found more than 1,000 billionaires throughout the world. While they're hardly household names themselves, their companies make products that are pretty hard to miss.

Take Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. If you liked building things as a child, there's a good chance you'll recognize his family's business.

Kristiansen's grandfather founded the Danish company Lego in 1932. At first, his grandfather crafted wood toys in a carpentry shop but in 1949 the company invented what would become its most famous product. At the time, the stackable plastic pieces with studs on top were called the Automatic Binding Brick. (See: "Forbes Faces: Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.")

Today, we simply call them Legos and the company is the world's sixth-largest toymaker by sales. The company's success led us to peg Kristiansen's net worth at $6.5 billion in March.

The full article:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/12/billio ... =yahoobuzz

And a bit more info from Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/people/2001/03/02 ... slego.html

Steve

Today we simply call them Legos

Oh brother... :evil:

Athos,

Dang you beat me too it.... was just about to paste that same article. Interesting article though.

'LEGOS' :!:

Heir

I prefer to stay ignorant about this kind of stuff so I don't feel guilty buying laygoes. Even just thinking that billionaires exist is agitating. Almost every problem facing humanity can be traced to class issues. Racism, sexism, poverty, education, all of it.

Good for him and his family. By offering individuals around the world the chance to own such a wonderful, quality-backed toy, he's earned every dollar, or should I say krone?

RebelRock wrote: Almost every problem facing humanity can be traced to class issues.

Don't forget communism...

Steve

RebelRock wrote:I prefer to stay ignorant about this kind of stuff so I don't feel guilty buying laygoes.

I like to here of this, cause it means Lego is doing Very well!

Even just thinking that billionaires exist is agitating.

I disagree it is the billionaires who give jobs and most have worked hard to get there.
(what gets me is when there is a billionaires who inherit a company then drive it to the ground)
Sorry if i offend anyone.

I love the misconception that any billionaire(or most millionaires) has "worked hard" to acquire a hoard of wealth. If someone can give me just one single legitimate example of a rich person working harder than any of the rest of us, I'll pay you a dollar. Most rich people are born into money and the idea that much actual work was involved in amassing such a bloated sack o cash is 99.999% false.

I think people who admire the rich are suffering from either masochistic tendencies or the subconscious desire to have powerful "daddy" figures around watching over us.

Athos wrote:

RebelRock wrote: Almost every problem facing humanity can be traced to class issues.

Don't forget communism... :wink:

Steve

The fact that you read my mind is a little eerie Steve... ; )

On topic, I doubt he's worth that much, the value of liquidating assets in the current cash strapped era is in flux.

Nathan

"Lego Richest in World?"... what a lame title.

@ Rocko: I'm not gonna debate you because I can see your point. But, OKK was a poor, hard worker, and his son GKK was smart enough to get a patent for an interlocking plastic brick when so many others failed to do so. Opportunity and effort can lead to cases of from rags to riches. While rare, the TLG story is like that. A dollar, please.

Did GKK really start from scratch financially? Surely he built on the back of some money.

BTW, I love the 1950's style communism paranoia that people still cling to. Even today you can't criticize the greed associated with uber-capitalism without someone crying "Communist!" Get a life, people.

RebelRock wrote:Did GKK really start from scratch financially? Surely he built on the back of some money.

Indeed, he transformed TLG into a new direction, but it was OKK who started the business, with little to nothing at all.

Sir Nelson wrote:"Lego Richest in World?"... what a lame title.

Well I didn't want to say KKK was the richest in the world from a computer at work...

Steve

Well, there is a bit of a difference when it comes to KKK-- he's not a billionaire in the USA, he's a billionaire in Denmark. From what I understand of the Danish government, it's very difficult to become wealthy, unlike here in the US, where we barely tax the upper class and give ridiculous bonus/raise/retirement/severance packages to CEOs and upper management.

Lego's also privately held, so it's not like it's going out of its way to make money for the shareholders, unlike many publicly traded companies whose shareholders primary concern is making their share price go up.

That last bit may also have a HUGE part in Kjeld's estimated net worth. He OWNS the company, so any assets that Lego has are, in theory, Kjeld's. So Kjeld (again, in theory) owns all the facilities that Lego holds, all the equipment in them, all the stock and resources that they store, and all the capital they have on hand. I don't know if Kjeld is the SOLE owner (it's possible that others in the family have some degree of ownership?), but his stake in the company is likely a LARGE contributer to the stated net worth.

Anyway, unless there are more details on how the figures were compiled, I wouldn't necessarily say that Kjeld's an unworthy billionaire like many of the others out there in the world.

DaveE

Rocko, what about Bill Gates.