Fortune 500 - Big Business Battles It Out

Welcome to the 54th Fortune 500 – Fortune magazine’s living, breathing almanac of big business.

For 2008, Wal-Mart Stores hangs on to the No. 1 spot, with sales in 2007 of a whopping $379 billion.  A facelift and even lower prices kept the world's largest retailer afloat in a troubled economy. Staring down the barrel of brutal fourth-quarter retail forecasts, CEO Lee Scott dramatically cut prices on 15,000 items — including popular toys and electronics — by 20% more than usual to lure holiday shoppers. That rocked the industry, pressuring other retailers to squeeze already tight margins. The tactic worked: Wal-Mart raked in $100 billion, breaking its fourth-quarter sales record, and soundly beat Target in same-store holiday sales for the first time in nearly a decade.

Exxon Mobil, staking its claim to the No. 2 position for a second consecutive year, is the oil behemoth everybody loves to hate — except its shareholders, of course. It's the most profitable company on the Fortune 500 for the fifth year in a row, raking in a record-breaking $40 billion in 2007 earnings. But the company’s near single-track focus on fossil fuels — plus its massive profit amid record gas prices — has drawn criticism from the public. An Exxon executive was recently grilled on Capitol Hill, with legislators demanding to know why the company hasn’t invested as much in renewables as some of its peers.

No. 4 last year, Chevron gains one spot to come in at No. 3.  The second-largest U.S. oil company posted its highest annual profit ever, with a 2007 income of $18.6 billion. Still, like the rest of the industry, its earnings from rising crude prices were pinched by increased refining costs. The company has also invested in energy alternatives, including geothermal and biodiesel fuels, and signed contracts to develop oil fields in China. This past February, it was added back into the Dow Jones industrial average for the third time in the history of the index.

The No. 4 spot is quite different from the oil rich top 3.  Swapping places with Chevron, General Motors recovery is slow going. High gasoline prices, weak auto sales, layoffs, buyouts and a looming recession helped shrink sales 12% and led to a $39 billion loss. Still, GM remains the world’s largest automaker, though it very nearly lost its top position in global car sales — which it has held for 76 years — to Japanese rival Toyota. A two-day nationwide autoworkers strike (the company’s first since 1970) resulted in a cost-saving labor deal that could make the company more competitive with nonunion rivals. It also created a trust fund for retiree health benefits, the first of its kind for autoworkers.

Not every oil giant was fat and happy last year. The No. 5 company, ConocoPhillips, in June, was forced to pull out of oil-rich Venezuela following an impasse with President Hugo Chavez. The company estimated that the pullout cost it $4.5 billion and, as a result, ConocoPhillips' earnings plunged 23.5% to $11.8 billion. But it wasn’t all bad news in 2007: ConocoPhillips became the first U.S. oil producer to support mandatory national regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. It recently announced plans to join forces with BP to construct a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in Alaska.

Key findings of the 2008 Fortune 500 include:

• The biggest gainer on the list was Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold, which moved up 258 places from No. 398 in 2006 to No. 140 in 2007.
• Fidelity National Financial dropped the most on the list falling 171 places to No. 435.
• The most profitable companies in 2007 were Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Chevron, J.P Morgan Chase & Co., and Bank of America Corp.
• For the fifth straight year (and seven of the last eight) Exxon Mobil made the most money, $40.6 billion.
• Largest companies by market value were Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Microsoft, AT&T and Procter & Gamble.
• Wal-Mart continues to be the biggest employer, employing more people (2 million) than serve in the U.S. armed forces (1.4 million).
• Fastest-growing companies in profits in 2007 are AK Steel Holding, Qwest Communications, Pitney Bowes, Williams, and MeadWestvaco.
• Texas, with 58 headquarters, is now the state with the most FORTUNE 500 companies. New York (No. 2) is right behind with 55 headquarters, while California is No. 3 with 52 headquarters and Illinois (33) and Ohio (28) follow at No. 4 and No. 5.
• Hess, Deere, and AK Steel Holding were among the Top 20 performing stocks of 2007 of the Fortune 500, thanks to the energy and commodities boom.
• One in three Americans uses a cellphone that runs over AT&T’s wireless network, 31 million homes rely on the company for phone service, and every company on the Fortune 500 list uses AT&T (ranked No. 10 on this year’s list) for data and phone connections.
• Newcomers to the list include Blackrock, PetSmart, OshKosh, Symantec and KraftFoods.
• Overall Fortune 500 revenue increased 7.1% from 2006 to $10.6 trillion.
• Overall Fortune 500 profits decreased 17.8% from 2006 to $645.2 billion.

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