The Theranos founder has schooled Forbes’s Richest Self-Made Women with yet another example of how women can break the failure ceiling. At 30, Holmes was included on the Forbes 400, the youngest woman ever to make the list, but less than two years later, she has been bumped. Forbes reports that her troubled company, once valued at $9 billion, is worth a mere $800 million, with yearly revenue around $100 million.
So how do you lose a billion without really trying? The same way you make a billion: the dark magick of stock options. Holmes owns 50 percent of the stock in Theranos, but her stock is merely ordinary. Her investors own preferred stock, which mean that they will be paid out first should Theranos liquidate, and the lowered valuation of the company means that Holmes would walk away with nothing.