Forbes Ranks eBay's $1.3 Billion Woman

Whitman's wealth puts her on Forbes richest list

She's stepping down from her perch high atop eBay, but when Margaret "Meg" Whitman retires at the end of the month, health and hearth will not be dependent on a weekly pension check, nor will she need a gold watch (which, considering the rising price of gold and all, she might otherwise sell on eBay). Turns out she's squirreled away a tidy little nest egg, totalling somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.3 billion, according to Forbes.

Though she is among the richest people in the world, Whitman is not among the richest of the richest, with her net worth ranking her at just #897 in the magazine's list of the world's wealthiest. However, the outgoing eBay president/CEO ranks as one of the 99 richest women in the world, and (on a slate that includes quite a few heiresses) one of its most accomplished - she earned her money. Topping that list is Lillian Bettencourt. Thanks to her controlling stake in the L'Oreal cosmetics firm, Bettencourt's $22.9 billion ranks her as the world's 17th richest person.

Standing atop the mountain of money is Warren Buffet. The "Oracle of Omaha" has supplanted Bill Gates as the wealthiest man on Earth (maybe the richest man EVER) with Forbes pegging the Berkshire Hathaway mogul's worth at $62 billion, putting him in front of the Microsoft man by about $4 billion. Mexican telecom entrepreneur Carlos Slim Helu sits between Buffet and Gates, with a pile of pesos estimated at $60 billion.

Whitman is not the only eBay executive on the Forbes list. Founder and Chairman of the Board Pierre Omidyar sits at #120, with a net worth of $7.7 billion. (Seeing these kind of numbers for Omidyar and Whitman ought to really inspire eBay sellers to go on strike!)

Other net-trepreneurs and tech types on the Forbes list are Oracle chief Lawrence Ellison (#14/$25 bil.), Google co-founders Sergey Brin (#32/$18.7 bil.) and Larry Page (#33/$18.6 bil.), Dell Computer magnate Michael Dell (#41/$16.4 bil.), and Amazon's Jeff Bezos (#110/$8.2 bil., though mostly not from sales of the Kindle).

A photo from MoneyControl.com shows Meg in what we'd call a Joe Walsh moment: "Life's been good to me so far."