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In a battle of tech billionaires, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff pulls a surprise win over Michael Dell

Micheal Dell, Marc Benioff
Micheal Dell, Marc Benioff

(Fitbit)

Last week, friends and Fitbit buddies Michael Dell and Marc Benioff challenged each other to a public fitness challenge to raise money for charity.

Whoever walked the most steps in one week would "win" and Fitbit would donate $100,000 to a charity of their choice. There was a catch: each of them could also get people to donate on their behalf and every dollar counted as a step.

It looked like Dell was a shoo-in to win, as he's very active and very competitive and had an early lead. And he was full of trash-talking bravado about it. He said his mantra for this week was going to be #dellbeatsbenioff2015.

But Benioff, who often talks like a Zen master but is equally competitive, pulled off the surprise win.

Including steps and donations, Benioff came it at 794,291, Dell at 722,213. All told, they raised $131,227 for the American Heart Association.

Both of these tech billionaires are heavily betting their companies on the upcoming new Internet of Things market and they like to point to their Fitbit bands as early examples of how Internet-enabled objects will change people's lives.

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