FORBES 500

Money makes the world go around

 

 

The Forbes 500 is an annual listing of the top 500 American companies produced by Forbes Magazine. The list is calculated by combining five factors: sales, profits, assets, market value, and employees.

 

 

Reasoning behind the list

 

The Forbes 500 was created to answer the question: what are the largest companies (in the USA)?  The challenge is to decide how to define "large".

 

One way might be to simply add up the amount of stuff a corporation owns - how much money it has in the bank, how many buildings it owns, how much equipment, etc. Overall, these are called "assets". However, this is very misleading, as many companies do not own, but rent or lease most of their equipment and buildings. Most importantly, money owed to banks is called an "asset" of the bank, and by this measure alone, banks would be ranked as the largest companies by far.

 

Another method might be to look at how much profit a company makes. But this would rank a company like Fannie Mae, which has only around 9000 employees and is essentially purely intangible, as one hundred times bigger than a company like General Motors which has hundreds of thousands of employees and many factories and other fixed assets. In addition, "profit" in a company is defined as all the money made after the cost of things sold and after the salaries are paid to all the employees. As an example, a company might sell shoes that cost a dollar to make but are sold for one hundred dollars. However, if the CEO paid himself $99 dollars per shoe, the company would be making no profit at all.

 

Another method might be to look at the revenue earned by the company. This is how the Fortune 500 ranks companies. This method is heavily biased towards distributors such as Walmart, which may have a high volume of sales but may be operating on very thin profit margins.

 

Another method might be to look at the market capitalization of the company, that is, the price to buy the entire company. However, this price is not set by any rule, but by how the people value the company and its prospects. Thus, in the late nineties, Cisco Systems would have been the biggest company by this measure. When the dot-com bubble crashed, Cisco's perceived value changed dramatically.

 

Recognizing such issues, Forbes uses a balanced mix of these factors to rank companies.

 

 

 

A

 

 

B

 

 

C

 

D

 

 

E

 

F

 

G

 

H

 

I

 

J

 

K

 

L

 

M

 

N

 

O

 

P

 

Q

 

R

 

S

 

T

 

U

 

V

 

W

 

X

 

Y

 

 

 

 

LINKS

 

MONEY FINDER

 

ABBEY NATIONAL

AGRICULTURAL BANK CHINA

ALLIANCE & LEICESTER

ALLIED IRISH

ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS

AMERICAN EXPRESS

ANGELS

ANZ BANK AUSTRALIA

ASIA PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION

BANCO BRADESCO

BANK OF AMERICA

BANK OF CHINA

BANK OF TOKYO JAPAN

BANK ONE USA

BANKS

BARCLAYCARD

BARCLAYS - UK

BAYERISCHE LANDESBANK - Germany

BNP PARIBAS GROUP - France

BILLIONAIRES

BRISTOL & WEST

BRITISH NATIONAL BUSINESS ANGELS

BRITISH VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS

BUILDING SOCIETIES A - Z

BUSINESS PLAN -  MARKETING

CAHOOT

CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK - Canada

CHASE MANHATTAN - US

CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK

CITIBANK - US

COMEICA BANK - US

CREDIT CARDS - DEBT RELIEF

CREDIT LYONNIAS - France

CREDIT SUISSE

DEUTSCHE BANK - Germany

DIAMONDS

DOW JONES

DRAGONS DEN 2006

DRESDNER BANK - Germany

ECONOMICS

ELECTRONIC MONEY TRANSFERS

EMERALDS

ENTREPRENEUR

EQUITY HOUSES

FINANCIER

FIRST DIRECT

FLEET - US 

FLOATATIONS

FORBES 100 RICHEST

FORBES 500

FOREX INVESTMENTS

FORTUNE 500

FOUNDATIONS - GATES

FREE TRADE ZONES

FTSE

FUJI BANK - JAPAN

GOLD

GOLDMAN SACHS

HALIFAX

HBOS - HALIFAX BANK of SCOTLAND

HOLDING COMPANY

HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE

HSBC

HSBC BANK USA - UK

HSBC - HK

IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION

IMPERIAL BANK - US

INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL BANK CHINA

INSURANCE

INVESTORS INDEX

IMF

ITAU UNIBANCO

J PIERPOINT MORGAN

JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE

KLEINWORT BENSON

LA SALLE BANK - US

LIFE ASSURANCE

LOANS

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE - MARKET

LLOYDS

MADRID STOCK EXCHANGE

MARKET CAPITALISATION

MAYBANK - Malaysia

MILLIONAIRES

MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL

MONEY

MONEY LAUNDERING

MORTGAGES

NASDAQ

NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK GROUP

NATIONAL LOTTERY

NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK

NATIONAL BUSINESS ANGEL NETWORK

NATIONAL CITY BANK - US

NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

OFFSHORE BANKING

OMX AB HELSINKI

PENSIONS

PLATINUM

PLCs

RBS ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND

ROYAL BANK CANADA

RUBIES

SANTANDER BANCO

SANWA BANK - Japan

SAPHIRES

SAVINGS

SHAREHOLDERS

SHARES, STOCKS, DIVIDENDS

SHELL COMPANIES

SIAM COMMERCIAL BANK - Thailand

SILVER

SOCIETE GENERALE - France

SOUTHERN BANK BERHAD - Malyasia

STANDARD CHARTERED BANK - UK

STATE STREET BANK - US

STOCKS AND SHARES

SUMITOMO MITSUI BANK - Japan

SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS

TAX HAVENS

THAI FARMERS BANK - Thailand

THE AMERICAN DOLLAR

THE ARAB INVESTMENT COMPANY

THE CHINESE YUAN

THE DINAR

THE EURO

THE INDIAN RUPEE

THE JAPANESE YEN

THE POUND STERLING

THE RUSSIAN ROUBLE

THE SOUTH AFRICAN RAND

THE SWISS FRANC

TOKYO STOCK EXCHANGE

TORONTO DOMINION BANK - Canada

TRUSTS

UBS AG - Switzerland

UNION BANK OF CALIFORNIA

US BANKCORP

VAT - VALUE ADDED TAX

VENTURE CAPITAL

VISA

WALL STREET

WELLS FARGO - US

WEST DEUTSCHE LANDESBANK - Germany

WESTPAC

WORLD BANK

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

WOOLWICH

-

-

 

 

 

 

Kulo Luna $billion dollar whale

When a pirate whaler kills a small humpback whale, her giant friend sinks the pirate ship to avenge the death, but is itself wounded. The pirates put a price on the whale's head, but an adventurer in an advanced solar powered boat races to beat the pirates and save the wounded animal. 

 

The $Billion Dollar Whale, Kulo Luna adventure novel by Jameson Hunter

 

A heartwarming action adventure: Pirate whalers V Conservationists, with an environmental message and a $Billion dollars riding on the winner. For release as an e-book in 2013 with hopes for a film in 2015 with a provisional budget of £80m including risk share, TBA

 

 

  

This website is copyright © 1991- 2013 Electrick Publications. All rights reserved. The bird logo and names Solar Navigator, Utopia Tristar and Blueplanet Ecostar are trademarks ™.  The Blueplanet vehicle configuration is registered ®.  All other trademarks hereby acknowledged and please note that this project should not be confused with the Australian: 'World Solar Challenge'™which is a superb road vehicle endurance race from Darwin to Adelaide.  Max Energy Limited is an educational charity working hard to promote world peace.

 

 AUTOMOTIVE  |  BLUEPLANET BE3  |  ELECTRIC CARS  |  ELECTRIC CYCLES  |  SOLAR CARS  SOLARNAVIGATOR