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Who is the richest person in Italy? Be careful how you answer. No, it isn't Gianni Agnelli, owner of Fiat, and it isn't Silvio Berlusconi, the television tycoon with a passion for politics. You are off course as well if you say Carlo De Benedetti or Giorgio Armani. The correct answer is Renato Soru, who some call the Italian Bill Gates. Until a few years ago, banks wouldn't grant him a loan. Today, his company, Tiscali, is worth more on the stock exchange than Agnelli's Fiat or Mediaset, Berlusconi's television and publishing empire.
A few numbers say it all. When Tiscali was first listed on Milan's stock exchange last October, its shares were selling for roughly $46. By the end of the first day, the price had jumped 55 percent. Today, one share costs more than $855. "Do you have any Tiscali, by chance?" Italians wistfully ask anyone who seems to enjoy a sudden burst...