How a 33-year-old became a billionaire

Robert J. Pera lives lean. The Apple engineer turned entrepreneur never checks a bag at the airport, leases a BMW and keeps a sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment in San Jose, Calif. Pera takes a similar stripped-down approach toward running Ubiquiti Networks, the maker of wireless-networking gear he founded in 2005 and that went public in ­October. "My aim is to build something great as efficiently as possible," he says.

Thus far Pera has had exceptional aim: In the 12 months ended Sept. 30, Ubiquiti netted $64 million on $243 million in sales. That 26% net margin is the highest of any publicly traded computer hardware firm, according to FactSet Research Systems. (Apple came in second, at 24%.) Pera owns 64% of Ubiquiti, making his stake worth $1.2 billion on paper.

via ca.finance.yahoo.com