Can you hear the theme of the Empire playing faintly in the background as Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page make Vanity Fair’s list of top powerbrokers? Dum dum dum dum da dum dum da dum. Yes, the force is strong with these two.
Each year, Vanity Fair ranks the world’s hardest hitting business minds in the information age with its New Establishment list. The Man just got a new face as Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. was bumped to second place among the most powerful tycoons. Brin and Page now share the throne at the top of the world.
At just 32-years-old, the Dynamic Duo of Search have amassed fortunes of $10 billion after Google shares spiked from $85 a share to over $300 in less than a year. Sales of the shares alone brought in $700 million a piece. The ranking moves Brin and Page up from the no.6 spot in 2004.
Their new titles also outpagerank prominent and powerful media moguls like Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone at no. 3, and the infamous Rupert Murdoch falling 2 spots to no. 4.
Here’s your top ten, along with last year’s ranking:
1) SERGEY BRIN, President, Technology, Google Inc. and LARRY PAGE, President, Products, Google Inc. (6)
2) H. LEE SCOTT JR., President and C.E.O., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (1)
3) SUMNER REDSTONE, Chairman and C.E.O., Viacom Inc. (3)
4) RUPERT MURDOCH, Chairman and C.E.O., News Corporation (2)
5) STEVE JOBS, C.E.O., Apple Computer, Inc.; Chairman and C.E.O., Pixar Animation Studios (5)
6) BILL GATES, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation (4)
7) MEG WHITMAN, President and C.E.O., eBay Inc. (11)
8) WARREN BUFFETT, Chairman and C.E.O., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (9)
9) BARRY DILLER, Chairman and C.E.O., InterActiveCorp (8)
10) OPRAH WINFREY, Chairman, Harpo Inc. (23)
