Silicon Valley's rich lose $11.5 billion in tech selloff

SAN FRANCISCO|NEW YORK: The technology stock selloff of the past week has come with a price tag for Silicon Valley’s richest: $11.5 billion. That’s how much the 23 wealthiest billionaires who derived most of their fortunes from West Coast technology companies have lost since the market closed on April 2, as investors ditched the stocks.

Facebook Inc’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon-.com Inc’s Jeff Bezos, Oracle Corp’s Larry Ellison and Microsoft Corp’s Bill Gates each lost more than $1 billion in four days of trading, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

While technology stocks reversed direction by rising yesterday, investors have been pulling out of the shares for much of the year in favor of companies with stable dividends and earnings.

Caterpillar Inc. is up 13 per centso far this year, while microblogging service Twitter Inc. is down 34 per cent and online retailer Amazon has slumped 18 per cent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index fell the most in two years on April 4.

"Investors need something to sink their teeth into," Jack Ablin, who helps manage $66 billion in assets as chief investment officer at Chicagobased BMO Private Bank, said in a phone call. "A lot of tech companies don’t have anything tangible to offer."