Walmart Rules Fortune 500 List

Editors see huge disparity between businesses, ordinary Americans
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 5, 2011 1:10 PM CDT
Fortune 500 List: Walmart, Exxon Mobil Again Top the List
VALLEY STREAM, NY - MARCH 29: A woman enters a Walmart store on March 29, 2011 in Valley Stream, New The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether more than one million female Walmart employees can pursue a class-action discrimination suit against the retailer. The group of women says Wal-Mart...   (Getty Images)

Turns out, last year was a pretty good one for US businesses. Total revenue for Fortune 500 companies jumped 10.5% to $10.8 trillion, while profits surged 81%. "We've rarely seen such a stark gulf between the fortunes of the 500 and those of ordinary Americans," write the editors at Fortune. Walmart finished on top for the second year in a row, though Exxon had bigger profits:

  1. Walmart: $422 billion in revenue, $16 billion in profits
  2. Exxon Mobil: $355 billion, $30 billion
  3. Chevron: $196 billion, $19 billion
  4. ConocoPhillips: $185 billion, $11 billion
  5. Fannie Mae: $154 billion (Fortune chalks it up to "new accounting rules"), -$14 billion
Click for the full list, which has Ford and Berkshire Hathaway cracking the top 10. (More Fortune 500 stories.)

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