The view from Waterloo Region:
RIM chiefs among richest Canadians
November 30, 2007
CHUCK HOWITT - RECORD STAFF - WATERLOO
Jim Balsillie
Mike Lazaridis
Research In Motion's dynamic duo has broken into the top 10 list of the richest Canadians.
Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive officers of the booming Waterloo-based wireless communications company, are ranked eighth and ninth respectively in the annual Rich 100 list compiled by Canadian Business magazine.
Last year, Lazaridis was ranked 24th while Balsillie was right behind him at 25th.
Lazaridis, 46, has a net worth of $4.36 billion, based on the magazine's analysis of proxy statements, insider-trading reports and other sources.
Balsillie, 46, is worth $4.09 billion, the magazine said.
Rankings were based on the value of assets held as of Oct. 12.
A former RIM executive also made the rarefied Rich 100 list.
Douglas Fregin, who co-founded the Waterloo company with Lazaridis in 1984, was ranked 27th with a net worth of $1.72 billion. Fregin, who retired from the company earlier this year, was ranked 70th last year.
The three RIM executives were the only area members of the Rich 100 club.
The net worth of the three RIM execs has had a major impact in the local community, with the trio donating tens of millions of dollars to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Balsillie School for International Relations, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum and Waterloo Region's hospitals.
A University of Waterloo graduate now living in California also is part of the Rich 100. David Cheriton, who graduated from UW in 1978 and now lives in Palo Alto, is ranked 25th with a net worth of $1.91 billion. Cheriton made his fortune investing in Google stock and
donated $25 million in 2005 to the computer science school at UW.
Topping the list of most affluent Canadians by a wide margin is the Thomson family, owners of the media and electronic data empire. The family's net worth is estimated at $25.35 billion.
This year's list included "a bumper crop of billionaires," according to the magazine.
Fifty-four hit at least the 10-digit mark, compared to 46 last year.
The three RIM members of the club also shared one other distinction.
Like a hit record, they shot up the money charts after scoring
the biggest gains in net worth of anybody on the list.
Fregin led the way at 164 per cent, followed by Lazaridis at 157 per cent and Balsillie at 153 per cent.
The next biggest gain was scored by cable tycoon Ted Rogers, whose net worth rose 67 per cent to $7.6 billion, vaulting him from fourth to second on the list.
The RIM trio were able to make such big strides in personal wealth largely because of the performance of RIM's stock which rose 163 per cent last year, including a three-for-one stock split, Canadian Business said.
Last year, the company was battling for survival in a protracted patent suit. But with the suit resolved, "investors released the stock's pent-up value, and RIM joined Google, Apple and Microsoft in a post-dot-com-bubble revival that has seen all perform well this year," the magazine said.
Next year could be just as lucrative for RIM's bosses.
With sales of the BlackBerry suffering no ill effects from the launch of Apple's iPhone and a recent deal that will see the popular handheld device distributed in China, Lazaridis and Balsillie could move up even further on the Rich 100 list, the magazine noted.
RICH 100 TOP TEN
1. Thomson family (media, electronic data), $25.35 billion
2. Edward (Ted) Rogers Jr. (media), $7.6 billion
3. Galen Weston (food products, supermarkets), $7.27 billion
4. Paul Desmarais Sr. (media, utilities, pulp and paper, financial services), $5.64 billion
5. James, Arthur and John Irving, (forestry, retail, trucking, energy, media), $5.3 billion
6. James Pattison, (transportation, communications, food products, packaging), $4.52 billion
7. Jeff Skoll, (first president of eBay, film producer), $4.48 billion
8. Michael Lazaridis, (wireless communications), $4.36 billion
9. James Balsillie, (wireless communications), $4.09 billion
10. Bernard (Barry) Sherman (pharmaceuticals), $3.61 billion.