Texas-based Exxon took in US$442.85 billion (S$665 billion) in revenue last year, up almost 19 per cent from 2007. The company also raked in the biggest annual profit, earning US$45.2 billion. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Exxon Mobil Corp unseated Wal-Mart Stores Inc in the 2009 Fortune 500 list, shrugging off the oil price bubble and weathering what the magazine called the worst year ever for the country's largest publicly traded companies.
Fortune's closely watched list, released on Sunday, ranked companies by their revenue in 2008. Irving, Texas-based Exxon took in US$442.85 billion (S$665 billion) in revenue last year, up almost 19 per cent from 2007. The company also raked in the biggest annual profit, earning US$45.2 billion.
BANKS TAKE A BEATING
Among the hardest hit in 2008 were financial services companies, Fortune said. Banks, securities firms and insurers took cumulative losses of US$213.4 billion, accounting for almost 70 per cent of the total dollar decline from the peak year of 2006, the magazine said.
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp, which were No. 8 and No. 9 respectively last year, each slipped a couple notches from the Top 10.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart had held the top spot for six of the last seven years but fell to No. 2 this year. Still, the retail giant's 2008 revenue climbed 7 per cent to US $405.6 billion, as the battered economy sent more consumers searching for bargains. The world's largest retailer took in US$13.4 billion in annual profit, an increase of about 5 per cent.
Although it may have been a good year for Exxon and Wal-Mart, 2008 was far from rosy for most of remaining companies on the list.
Overall earnings plunged 85 per cent to US$98.9 billion from US$645 billion in 2007, the biggest one-year decline in the 55-year history of the Fortune 500 list.
'America is getting used to the sound of bubbles bursting,' Fortune said.
Energy companies continued to dominate many of the top positions, as last summer's skyrocketing oil and gas prices more than compensated for their plunge later that fall. Chevron Corp held on to third place with US$263.16 billion in revenue, up 25 per cent.
ConocoPhillips climbed one place to fourth, with US$230.76 billion in revenue.
General Electric Co, the diverse conglomerate whose troubled financial arm has been weighing on recent results, rose one notch to fifth. Battered automaker General Motors Corp fell two spots to sixth, as revenue fell 18 per cent and losses totalled US$30.86 billion amid the imploding car market. Crosstown rival Ford Motor Co followed, with US$146.28 billion in revenue.
Telecom giant AT&T Inc moved up two notches to take eighth place, with Hewlett-Packard Co and Valero Energy Corp rounding out the top 10. -- AP
