What is the largest company in the world? This is a question whose answer for us, sympathetic to the world of technology and to a certain fruitful company in Cupertino (California), is usually "Apple". But, as Fsica would say, everything depends on the benchmark: Ma, yes, the biggest company on this planet if we take into account its market value, but in other aspects Tim Cook and his group still have a lot to work on if they want to achieve the top of the world.
I say this because the Fortune today published the 2017 edition of its famous list of the 500 largest companies in the United States and, for the second consecutive year, Apple took the third place. The magazine lists companies based on their revenue over the last fiscal year, and in 2017, Ma was surpassed only by Walmart and for Berkshire Hathaway.
Despite the very honorable placement, for example, the only technology company in the Top 10, in addition to having risen 250 (!) positions in the past eight years, Apple’s description by Fortune among the most flattering:
After more than a decade of solid growth powered by the first iPod music player and then the even more popular iPhone, Apple finally seems to have hit a wall, with lukewarm sales relatively speaking of other products like the iPad and Apple Watch, in addition of a strong insistence on slightly updated phone models. But the most profitable publicly traded company in the world is investing heavily in software and its efforts in new areas of opportunity, including automobiles, are still under development (and under strong secrecy).
The beginning of the ranking of Fortune, in 2017, it looked like this:
- Walmart – $ 485 billion in the last fiscal year
- Berkshire Hathaway – $ 223 billion
- Apple – $ 215 billion
- Exxon Mobil – $ 205 billion
- McKesson – $ 192 billion
- UnitedHealth Group – $ 184 billion
- CVS Health – $ 177 billion
- General Motors – $ 166 billion
- ATT – $ 163 billion
- Ford – $ 151 billion
Among the other technology companies that appeared on the list, we have Amazon (12 place), Alphabet (27), Microsoft (28), IBM (32), Dell (41), Intel (47), HP (59), Oracle (81) and Facebook (98) this considering only the first 100.
It is good to remember, of course, that the list consists only of companies founded in the USA: if we analyze the world ranking, Apple (and, therefore, all companies below it) falls several positions, mainly due to Chinese and European companies.
via 9to5Mac
