Sarin, Ballmer own billions; But who cares?

Arun Sarin and Steve Ballmer might be heading the world's largest mobile operator Vodafone and the biggest software maker Microsoft respectively, but that does not guarantee them a place in the elite league of people who matter -- rather they could be pushed into the bunch of those who do not matter.

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer, who is considered only next to Bill Gates at the Redmond-based global IT giant, and Arun Sarin, the high profile Indian origin CEO of UK-based telecom major Vodafone, have been featured in the list of "10 people who don't matter", published in the latest July issue of Fortune group magazine Business 2.0.

"Not everyone with a fancy title really counts" and these are the "people you can safely snub at conferences," said the magazine.

This list included names of people whose power had peaked, influence had waned, or whose true importance was overstated, Business 2.0 said.

These are the people who are worth billions of dollars, command big salaries and have impressive titles and among them are the creators of the Sony PlayStation, the DVD, and Linux.

While they might be much respected for their past achievements, their best days are behind them, it added.

The list of 10 people who do not matter has been published along with a separate list of "50 who matter now" in the same issue, which is led by "You! the consumers" at the top position.

About Arun Sarin, the magazine said that he might run the world's largest mobile phone operator Vodafone, but he faces the "unenviable job of jump-starting growth" at a company that has more than $100 billion in annual sales and 171 million customers worldwide.

Sarin is also coming off a rough quarter in which the London-based giant announced a $40 billion loss - the biggest ever for a British company, it added.

The magazine further said Steve Ballmer is a "lame duck." "With longtime partner Bill Gates stepping away from his day-to-day role to focus on saving the world, and Ray Ozzie playing the role of resident visionary, the CEO's job just won't be as much fun," Business 2.0 said.

The list also included Jeffrey Citron, chairman and chief strategist of Vonage, NetFlix CEO Reed Hastings, Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi, HD-DVD Promotion Group senior consultant Warren Lieberfarb, Rob Malda of Slashdot.org, Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz, Linux creator Linus Torvalds and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.