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[Rhea Thomas]

The deepening global economic recession is not only wiping jobs and companies, it is also wiping the wealth's of the world's richest. The annual Forbes list of World's Billionaires shows how the net worth of the world's richest have got dented in the past one year (just like most of us).

This year the world's billionaires have an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23% in 12 months. The world now has 793 billionaires, down from 1,125 a year ago.

Coming to the winners, the list sees the comeback of tech czar Bill Gates at no. 1 position. Gates last year lost his crown after being the world's richest billionaire for 15 years in a row.

The list also has some other big names from the technology industry. These technology leaders though saw a huge fall in their net worth, some in rankings too, managed to retain their places in the list. Here's over to the 15 richest technology billionaires.

[Rhea Thomas]

Bill Gates

Technology companies may not be exactly be back in shape, but tech czar Bill Gates is back at the numero uno spot in the Forbes' The World's billionaires list.

With a net worth of $40 billion, software king Bill Gates has regained his position as the world's wealthiest from his friend and legendary investor Warren Buffett. A Harvard College dropped out, Gates has been topping the Billionaires list since the past 15 years in a row (from 1993 and 2007). In 2008, he held the second spot.

However, the deepening economic crisis has eroded Gates fortune too. Gates has lost $18 billion in the past one year.

Born on October 28, 1955, Gates resigned as a full-time chairman from Microsoft last year take up a full-time philanthropic role in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. During the Dotcom heydays, Gates's wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion. Gates married Melinda French of Dallas, Texas in January 1994.

[Rhea Thomas]

Lawrence Ellison

The second richest techie in the list is Lawrence Joseph Ellison, co-founder and CEO of the leading software company, Oracle Corporation. Ellison ranks at no. four on the list with a net worth of $22.5 billion. His shares are still worth $300 million.

Sixty-four-year-old Ellison started Oracle Corp in 1977. Two years younger to arch rival Microsoft corp, Oracle went public a day before Microsoft in 1986.

In the past four years, Oracle has racked up 49 acquisitions, including BEA Systems (bought for $8.5 billion in 2008). The company also invested $125 million in Web software outfit Netsuite.

A licensed pilot, Ellison is said to own several unusual aircrafts. Known for his flamboyant lifestyle, Ellison has got a leisure boat built for himself. Chicago native studied physics at University of Chicago, but didn't complete his graduation.

[Rhea Thomas]

Michael Dell

Dell may be facing rough times, however with a net worth of $12.3 billion, CEO Michael Dell still manages to rank at no. 25 in Forbes' billionaires list. The CEO of the world's second-largest PC maker has been the youngest CEO ever to earn a ranking on the Fortune 500.

Forty-four-year-old Michael Dell started a company called PC's Limited from a room, while still studying at the University of Texas. The company later became Dell Computer Corporation, followed by Dell Inc in 2003.

In 1998, Dell formed MSD Capital and in 1999, he and his wife formed the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, to manage the investments and philanthropic efforts, respectively, of the Dell family.

Between July and September last year he bought up $200 million in Dell stock. The last one year has been tough for Dell, with shares going down by as much as 60 per cent.

The company posted fourth quarter profits down 48%. Sales are also down 17%. In August 2006, the company recalled 4.1 million laptops after complaints of faulty battery. Wife, Susan, owns fashion label Phi, which sells through over 24 boutiques worldwide.

[Rhea Thomas]

Sergey Brin & Larry Page

At the 26th spot on the Forbes world's billionaire list are Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, with net worth of $12 billion each.

The duo started Google in 1998 from a friend's garage. A native of Moscow, Brin, now a US citizen, did his Bachelors of Science degree with honors in mathematics and computer science from the University of Maryland at College Park. While following in his father's footsteps in academics, Larry went on earn a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from University of Michigan.

Page was Google's founding CEO and grew the company to more than 200 employees and profitability before moving into his role as president, products in April 2001. Today, the two continue to share the responsibility of Google's day-to-day operations with CEO Eric Schmidt.

Sergey's research interests include search engines, information extraction from unstructured sources and data mining of large text collections and scientific data.

The recession has not left the search giant unscathed, with the company stock plummeting by over 30% in the past six month. It has also sliced nearly $4 billion from Larry's personal balance sheet, while Sergey lost has almost $3.9 billion.

[Rhea Thomas]

Steven Ballmer

The second Microsoftie on the list, Chief Executive Officer Steven A Ballmer ranks at no. 29 with a net worth estimated at $11 billion.

Incidentally, Ballmer is the first employee in the US to become a billionaire on stock options received as an employee of a corporation he has not founded.

A college mate of Bill Gate, Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and was the first business manager to be hired by Gates. He became the CEO of Microsoft in 2000.

During his tenure at Microsoft, Ballmer has headed several divisions, including operations, operating systems development and sales and support.

Described as ebullient, focused, funny, passionate, sincere, hard-charging and dynamic, Ballmer is said to have imparted his own brand of energetic leadership, vision and spirit at Microsoft over the years.

Like his boss, Ballmer too dropped out of Stanford MBA programme to join Gates in 1980.