Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has a distinguished notation on Forbes’ rich list.
From a perch at billionaire status, she now has a net worth of zero.
“Last year, Elizabeth Holmes topped the FORBES list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women with a net worth of $4.5 billion,” Forbes reporter Matthew Herper wrote on its website. “Today, FORBES is lowering our estimate of her net worth to nothing.”
Forbes said that Theranos, which pitched giving blood results from samples taken at the fingertips, once was valued at $9 billion, and Holmes, 32, was worth $4.5 billion based on a 50% stake in 2015. That valuation has since dropped significantly after Theranos’s procedures came under scrutiny.
After speaking with a dozen venture capitalists, analysts and industry experts, Forbes came up with a valuation of $800 million. But being that it’s billionaires that Forbes covers, it decided that ”at such a low valuation, Holmes’ stake is essentially worth nothing.”
Holmes dropped out of Stanford University to start up Theranos in 2003.