Talk:Business magnate

Bill Gates

I think Bill Gates qualifies, but I'm not sure. Nelson Ricardo 06:09, Oct 11, 2004 (UTC)

I would agree that Bill Gates could, and should, be considered a "famous industrialist"— Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.7.158.82 (talk • contribs) 16:57, February 24, 2006‎

industrialist should be merged, but fo gates, it's not right. industrialist was coined in an era where the money was to be made from manufacturing, mining, or other such grand endeavors dealing with massive scale and the physical world. Yes, Gates deals with the physical world too, but his major contribution is in software, which is much more ephemeral, almost akin to publishing. since "informationalist" was never coined to replace "industrialist", we're kinda stuck. he's a magnate, a tycoon, a mogul, but industrialist, not really.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.198.46.150 (talk • contribs) 22:25, September 2, 2006‎

Bullshit. If Hearst is an industrialist so is Gates. He's the captain of an industry--the compouter industry. Of course he's a bloody industrialist. -Dicky Betz— Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.148.92.18 (talk • contribs) 11:44, January 30, 2007‎

Etymology

The article name and listing uses "magnate", but the etymology only explains the origins of "tycoon" and "mogul". Anyone care to elaborate? Unigolyn 09:57, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

The mention of the Greek word "Τύχη" is so funny. It's exactly what the father from the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" does with "Kimono". You never know, there may have been ancient traders semi-fluent in many languages that had spread the words we use today, way before the modern day usage begun. --Pandaflex (talk) 00:17, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

I am actually removing the part that mentions the Greek word, since the two words are unrelated --Meidei (talk) 12:50, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

How about some women?

The glaring omissions I can think of are Oprah Winfrey ($1.5 billion, TV, publishing), Martha Stewart ($650 million, home furnishings, TV, publishing), Leona Helmsley (over $5 billion, real estate) right off the bat, to say nothing of the non-US female tycoons of the last century. Or should that be a separate "Business Tycette" article? If no-one else objects, I'm going to start adding some women and non-US folks to this currently thin list. Strike71 05:56, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Added a few people to the "notable magnates" list, including six women with greater business empires, fortunes, and more influence than many of the men on the list. Also, Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates and defines a "Tycoon" in many ways (Microsoft, Vulcan, Scaled Composites and the Ansari X-Prize, professional sports teams, $500mil. in philanthropic gifts, etc.) better than Bill Gates, at least as far as variety of interests goes. Also cleaned up the alphabetizing and organization a tad. Strike71 21:50, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Came back and saw Ms. Winfrey and Ms. Stewart were removed - if they aren't business magnates, with the media empires they control, then half the other people on the list aren't either. Also, the person that eliminated them didn't sign in and removed only them, which is just snarky. strike71 06:16, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Rupert Murdoch

Surely he belongs on this list? He's tagged 'Media mogul' on just about every page about him. 213.122.234.165 (talk) 20:17, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Page not in English!

I believe something really huge is wrong here. To me, the whole article is displayed in Spanish! I do not have the knowledge to fix this, but it feels like a critical error...— Preceding unsigned comment added by Olof nord (talk • contribs) 14:33, May 16, 2011

This page should be deleted.

A Business "magnate" is not a thing. It is certainly not a thing deserving of a wikipedia page. You're all idiots, especially whoever wrote this page. 24.235.129.212 (talk) 02:29, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Industrialist

• The use of the term "industrialist" to refer to a newpaper magnate is disputed, for example http://lansner.ocregister.com/2012/05/15/industrialist-bid-18-5m-for-newport-coast-estate/162702/ makes a clear distinction: "A wealthy Japanese newspaper publisher and industrialist"
• I don't think the usage to refer to a "shipping magnate" is common.
• I'm not familiar with the use of the term with respect to the rail industry - the term "railway baron" might be applicable here
• The claim that the term has fallen out of use is also disputed, for example in a search "Lakshmi Mittal Industrialist" [1] shows extensive use of the term in recent news.Oranjblud (talk) 22:32, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

Donald Trump

I'm removing Trump from the list. Yes, he "owns" a lot of real estate but he also owes billions and the stock listing for one of his holdings had to be delisted because the price went so low. In the late '80's, he told everyone, "I'm a multi-billionaire," but when the bankruptcy courts became involved, he was over $800 million in debt. The only reason he didn't have to declare bankruptcy was because the banks didn't want to start running his real estate companies.TL36 (talk) 02:10, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

Added Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart to the list already to increase the representation of females. Forbes still lists Trump as a billionaire as of 2014 and he's not just in real estate, but casino's, entertainment, book publishing, and started his own fashion line though I agree with your removal nonetheless. Backendgaming (talk) 05:02, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Redirects here and possible additions

For the record I have made sure that there are several redirects to this article from things like lumber baron, railroad baron, etc. These are very commonly used terms to refer to people prominent in the history of the development of the U.S., the West in particular. (I agree with the above that we need more women and global names but urge people to cite and/or discuss those additions on this talk page. Oprah seems like a natural for media mogul.) Valfontis (talk) 20:52, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey

Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey are not business magnates. Why are they in this list. I will remove if sufficient reason is not given. A rich person is not a business magnate. A TV star earning great amounts of money is not a business magnate. Using their own name as a brand to endorse products also does not count as being a business magnate. Ergzay (talk) 02:18, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

Elon Musk

I added Elon Musk because he is clearly the future captain of industry for solar power, automotive and rockets, satellites and colonizing other planets.--Arado (talk) 08:35, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 September 2018

Change Magnate to Magnet. . MotherInet (talk) 13:30, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

References

No, "magnate" is correct, regardless of Elon Musk's idiotic antics. Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 15:05, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 September 2018

Magnates should be Magnet 66.27.46.82 (talk) 19:36, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

 Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. RudolfRed (talk) 19:39, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

Representation

Surely at least a few images of highly successful female entrepeneurs could be added here... Any suggestions?

--LGLou (talk) 14:44, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

@LGLou: Perhaps Gina Rinehart and Karren Brady? The problem I have going through the list of richest women in the world is that quite a few aren't known as magnates in their own right: the richest few (Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, Alice Walton, MacKenzie Scott, Julia Koch, Miriam Adelson) are heiresses rather than the one who started the company or people who derive their wealth mainly from their families. I agree that it's jarring, but "highly successful female entrepeneurs" isn't the same as "business magnate". Anna Wintour and Oprah might be highly successful women in their own right, but do they have "ownership of multiple lines of enterprise"? To be honest, keeping the gallery might be more trouble than it's worth. Sdrqaz (talk) 17:59, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

what is mag/#5/ogs or whatever?

Seems like a typo AboutMeREAL (talk) 12:05, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

Renaming to industrialist

I propose that this article be renamed industrialist for the following reasons: 1) it is far more common. A Google search for "business magnate" turns up less than 1 million results versus over 12 million for "industrialist" 2) Industrialist is the name of the large category tree, see Category:Industrialists

Thoughts?--User:Namiba 13:29, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

good idea according to Google search, there are over 5,000,000 scholarly articles and books using the term "software industry" https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,27&q=Software+industry and also 27,000 scholarly books and articles that use the term "software industrialist" Rjensen (talk) 14:34, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

Awful, un-encyclopedic gallery

The gallery is wholly unsourced. It should be reformatted as a bullet-point list, with proper citations, and an explanation of why each is considered a business magnate (what industries they dominated, etc.) DFlhb (talk) 18:14, 21 April 2023 (UTC)