'Wealthiest Angelenos' List Expands To 58 - All Billionaires
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The number of billionaires in Los Angeles County is ballooning.
The Los Angeles Business Journal released its annual "Wealthiest Angelenos" list Monday, which was expanded beyond the the usual 50 to 58 billionaires who call the county home.
Those who made the list have a combined net worth of more than $203 billion - more than twice the value of the net assets of the Walt Disney Co., the largest public company in Southern California, according to the Journal.
Topping the list for a record ninth straight year was Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the medical innovator whose groundbreaking work on diabetes led to the first nanotechnology-based breast cancer drug, Abraxane.
Elon Musk, the high-profile founder and CEO of Tesla, solidified his No. 2 ranking for the fourth consecutive year.
Both Soon-Shiong and Musk were born in South Africa, and represent a quarter of the people on the list who were born overseas. Others countries represented on the list include Canada, China, Hungary, Egypt, Israel, South Korea, Iran, France, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
Newcomers to the list included real estate developer Geoffrey Palmer, pop icons Jay Z and Beyonce, and Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Bobby Kotick.
The Journal's list of wealthiest residents began in 1994, and in 2015 saw all 50 spots occupied by billionaires for the first time ever.