The £1 billion falling-out: A tale of two dotcom millionaires

  They were the best of friends. Their internet venture made them multimillionaires. Then they stopped speaking. Now their business is set to sell for £1bn, and Duncan Cameron is looking at a far smaller slice of the cake than Simon Nixon. Andy McSmith investigates

Published: 12 July 2007

Some people think we should be feeling sorry today for Duncan Cameron, a multimillionaire from Chester. A university drop-out, Mr Cameron is at least 10 times richer than the luckiest Lottery winner. He owns two Ferraris, worth more than £300,000, has a cellar full of the finest wine, and as he approaches middle age, he has more disposable cash than most people could ever dream of accumulating.

But although he is a very, very rich man, his chances of moving up into the higher realms of the mega-rich have slipped away. He is a multimillionaire, but not a billionaire. He began the year as the 165th richest man in the UK, but will be lucky to end it in the top 200 - and all because, in the long run, he could not get along with his sister's former boyfriend. continue...