US Report: Yahoo's Yang joins billionaire club

Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang has joined the billionaire club after his company's stock soared to a record $199.25 (£121.50) Monday. Yang joins fellow co-founder David Filo, who hit the billion-dollar mark last Wednesday.

According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Yang owns 5.7 million shares of Yahoo! stock, putting his worth at $1.14bn (£695m) after today's run-up. In the past several months, Yahoo! has led a surge in Internet based stocks as investors bet on the e-commerce potential of portal sites. Yahoo! shares broke the $100 mark just three months ago.

Yang and Filo, who both hold the title of Chief Yahoo! at their company, are probably the first owners of an Internet-based firm to hit billionaire status.

But that's small potatoes compared to guys such as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who hurdled $50bn (£30.5bn) mark in April.

The incredible gains by Yahoo! and other Internet stocks come just two days before the Internet giant will announce its second-quarter results.