Exxon Mobil Corp. bumped Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. out of the number one position in the 2009 Fortune 500 list released on Sunday. Fortune's list ranks companies by their annual revenue.
Exxon-Mobil surpassed the retail giant's revenue by bringing in $45.22 billion in profit for 2008, up by almost 19% from 2007. Exxon-Mobil managed to post record gains for the fourth year in a row, according to the magazine. Though slowing demand and lower oil prices hurt the company's oil production arm for the last six months of the year, the refinery side of the business gained as lower crude prices also made it cheaper to produce gasoline and diesel fuels.
Chevron, the second-largest oil company behind Exxon, takes the number two position with an annual record of $23.93 billion in profit. Despite see-sawing oil prices and a sharp drop in worldwide demand for oil in the second half of the year, Chevron also managed to offset the decline in oil and gas prices by bolstering its refinery business.
Microsoft takes the number three spot with an annual profit of $17.68 billion for 2008, up 26% from the previous year. The Xbox 360 gaming system, servers, and business tools are the backbone of the company's growth, and Microsoft's net revenues have posted double-digit gains in all but one of the past ten years.
General Electric sits in the number four position, even after it took a beating in 2008 through the financial services part of its business with GE Capital. GE pulled through the 22% loss with a capital infusion from Warren Buffet and by cutting its stock dividends. Still, GE managed to come out of 2008 with a company-wide profit of $17.41 billion.
Wal-Mart has held the top position for six of the last seven years, raking in $13.40 billion in profit last year - up 7% as the nation's economic troubles sent consumers hunting for bargains. For 2008, the retail giant slid down to the number five spot. There are over 7,800 Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Club locations in 16 markets worldwide, providing jobs to over 2 million associates and serving more than 100 million customers per year.
Sources:
Money.CNN
Microsoft
GE
Wal-Mart
Exxon-Mobil
Chevron