I am kind of surprised billionaires and CEOs don't order each others' killings more often. I was doing homework one night and the building next door's top 2 floors were blown up because some banker had a hit placed on his head. So perhaps I have pretty low expectations on what powerful people without morals can do.
It is indeed surprising because the profit motive is there and it is not limited to just rival billionaires. Any random guy with enough capital can short the company stock and then place a hit on the CEO. I would expect stuff like that to happen super often but I don't think I have even heard of one real case like this.
One factor is that it’s really hard to find loyal henchmen to perform hits who won’t later blackmail you or squeal to the police in return for a plea bargain. You need an organization to enforce loyalty down a chain of command, like any crime syndicate, and it’s hard to keep that a secret.
It’s better to apply your energies to creating things.