Lawrence Ellison - $21.5 bil - Oracle - #1 in California, United States.

Brash software titan still at helm of Oracle Systems, database outfit he cofounded 30 years ago. Reshaping the industry with a massive shopping spree; spent $19 billion buying 21 software companies in past 3 years. Biggest acquisitions: PeopleSoft for $11 billion, Siebel Systems for $5.9 billion. Deals added $4.6 billion to company’s annual revenue, 18,000 to employee count. Combination makes Oracle, already strong in database management, a big player in business applications like accounting and personnel. Now stitching it all together into software suite Fusion for release by 2008. Predicts earnings will grow 20% a year for the rest of the decade. Chicago native studied physics at U of Chicago; didn’t graduate. Started Oracle in 1977. Took public in 1986, a day before Microsoft. Companies have been fiercely competitive ever since. Spends lots of time on distractions: tweaking his 40-acre Japanese-style estate, cruising on his 453-foot yacht, Rising Sun. Plans to sail in 2007 America’s Cup in Spain.

“Money is just a method of keeping score now.”

Getting paid for products and services online is a relatively new phenomenon. Nowadays, you can sell almost anything online — but at a price. Coughing up thousands of dollars to establish your own merchant account can be daunting. Fortunately, there is an alternative: PayPal.
PayPal is an online payment system owned by eBay, the world’s biggest flea market. PayPal lets eBay merchants accept electronic payments without shelling out a small fortune to Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. But it isn’t only eBay merchants who benefit: PayPal is a product in its own right.
The net effect is that you can use PayPal to process electronic payments without listing your products or services on eBay, and without shelling out the aforementioned small fortune for a merchant account. For a small fee (generally 1% to 3% of the transaction amount, plus $.30 per transaction), PayPal will process electronic payments for any product or service on nearly any Web site. Setting up your Web application to accomplish this, however, isn’t quite so straightforward.
This article walks you straight through a winding path that will help you turn an ordinary Web site into your own personal money tree. It helps you find the latest PayPal Web controls for ASP.NET, and acquire a few tips from PayPal insiders and PayPal Hacks author Dave Nielsen.
Establishing a PayPal Account
There are a few things to know before you get started. First are the company rules. The free PayPal personal accounts can accept PayPal payments and bank account transfers, but a personal account does not let you accept credit cards. To accept credit cards, you must establish a (free) business account, or upgrade to a premier account. Every payment you receive costs 2.9% of the transaction amount, plus $.30 for beginners; it goes as low as 1.9% for high volume merchants. There are never any monthly fees.
PayPal prefers to move money around in its own accounts rather than cut you a check, but you can get a check or use your PayPal account to buy things for yourself online. One alternative is to request a PayPal debit card; it works like any debit card, and funds are taken right from your PayPal account. Plus, you can withdraw funds directly into your own bank account.
Finally, PayPal is associated with eBay and has a very low fraud rate.
Collectively, these things make PayPal a viable option for selling directly online.
Creating Your Account
To begin, you need a PayPal account. PayPal recommends that you use no live accounts in the sandbox, but ultimately you’ll need a live PayPal account to get paid. However, you can play in the sandbox all day without providing PayPal (or anyone else) any banking information or funds.

The development of forex trading software is what makes it possible for foreign exchange traders to make trades from their own computers. The majority of these software options are included for download when you open an account with a particular trading company and this article will guide you throug

Continued advancements in forex trading software are responsible for the continued growth of the foreign exchange trade industry. Forex trading software is readily available and is more user friendly than ever before. If you have ever been discouraged from trying your hand at online investing because the software was too complicated, now is the time to try it again. The software offered on most of the large forex trading platforms comes with full 24 hour customer support. Forex traders demanded better trading systems, and the service providers have responded.
Quick fact : The Forex market is by far the largest financial market in the world, and includes trading between large banks,central banks, currency speculators,multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions.
One site that offers their own version of forex trading software when you open an account with them is forex. com. This custom designed software is widely used and has a high rate of customer satisfaction. The site’s customer service center is open 24 hours a day Monday through Friday (basically when the worldwide forex markets are open) so that you can address any issues that you may have immediately. Experienced forex traders know just how costly down time can be, so it’s important to have someone to turn to immediately should any problems occur.
Did you know that the average daily trade in the global forex markets currently exceeds US$ 2-2.5 trillion !
Another great website that offers free downloadable forex trading software when you open an account is gftforex. com. The software they make available to their clients is called Dealbook360. This state of the art trading software is simple enough to allow even beginning forex traders to feel comfortable but powerful and comprehensive enough to keep even the most demanding foreign exchange traders happy and satisfied . In addition, Dealbook 360 monitors some of the tightest bid/buy spreads available, thus increasing your profit margins.
A third reference that you may find useful is fxstreet. com. This page lists all of the major trading companies and the financial institutions that they run out of. This site also lists what kind of software each trading company is currently utilizing. Aside from listing the forex trading software that a particular company is using, this site also provides useful current information about pip spreads and a few other details about each site. Do you want to know if a particular company offers live technical support? You can find the answer quickly on fxstreet.com.
You will find that most forex trading software is similar in design and function. The features that separate good from bad are the support features that each forex trading company offers with its trading software. Before you choose a foreign exchange trading company to use, make sure that you do plenty of research on all of the companies that you are interested in. Take advantage of the investment simulators that each offers on its site and get a feel for how the forex trading software works in real time. Read consumer reviews to see other forex trader’s opinions and experiences with a given company. Check to make sure that their customer service record is reliable and prompt.

Forex is the largest and most happening financial market of the world. It is the venue where one currency is traded for the other. The market place is distinguished from the rest because of its high trading volume and geographical dispersion. A trader with sound knowledge of currency trading can earn substantial profit in forex market. Along with the knowledge of trading, he should have access to a few tools of forex trading. These tools are made to strengthen the confidence of a trader and can prove out to be a great help for a winning currency trading in forex.
Being an awakened trader of forex market, you should remain aware about every latest happening of currency trading. Therefore, it’s important for you to have access to daily forex trading summary for important currencies and currency pairs. Add to this, a weekly forex trading summary is also beneficial as it will encompass detailed analysis of your sought subject. Tools that help you to access and monitor the interest rates, financial calendar, glossary database are also worthwhile.
Apart from the above, there are several other tools of currency trading available around you. Several software containing detailed analysis and information about currency trading are also available at your disposal. All these tools and software packs are important for a successful forex trading. With access to such tools, a trader can easily execute his trading. Now, how to get these tools easily and satisfactorily? Well, it’s easy.
With the availability of internet, you need not to get out of your home to access these tools and software packs. Just a single click and you can access valuable information and tools regarding currency trading in forex. Several online forex firms have been established only to offer you tools and software packs for forex trading. Some of them may charge money from you to download or access the software packs and tools. If you are not at all interested to cut your pocket, go for those forex firms, who offer free download facility.
Online forex firms are beneficial in many ways. They not only offer you currency trading tools and software but also keen to give you an insight into the latest incidents of forex market. They also publish economic reports and influential topics on their websites with an aim to update a trader about what matter in currency trading. You can also access live charts of the forex market and trading secrets from such online firms. These forex firms are usually run by experienced professional, who own years of experience in currency trading. So, you can trust them.
Thus trading in forex market has become easy with the availability of tools and software packs. And the advent of internet has made it easier. Today any one from any corner of the world can access forex trading tools for simplifying his currency trading.