Irving, Texas-based Exxon took in $442.85 billion in revenue last year, up almost 19% from 2007. The company also raked in the biggest annual profit, earning $45.2 billion.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart [image-nocss] had held the top spot for six of the last seven years but fell to No. 2 this year. Still, the retail giant's 2008 revenue climbed 7% to $405.6 billion, as the battered economy sent more consumers searching for bargains. The world's largest retailer took in $13.4 billion in annual profit, an increase of about 5%.
Although it may have been a good year for Exxon and Wal-Mart, 2008 was far from rosy for most of remaining companies on the list. Overall earnings plunged 85% to $98.9 billion from $645 billion in 2007, the biggest one-year decline in the 55-year history of the Fortune 500 list.
"America is getting used to the sound of bubbles bursting," the magazine said.
Energy companies continued to dominate many of the top positions, as last summer's skyrocketing oil and gas prices more than compensated for their plunge later that fall. Chevron Corp. held on to third place with $263.16 billion in revenue, up 25%. ConocoPhillips climbed one place to fourth, with $230.76 billion in revenue. Valero took 10th place, with $118.29 billion in revenue.
Others included Marathon at No. 23, with $73.5 billion in revenue; Sunoco, No. 41, with $51.65 billion; Hess, No. 55 with $41.09 billion; Tesoro, No. 91, with $28.03 billion; Murphy Oil, No. 92, with $27.51 billion; and Western Refining, No. 253, with $10.72 billion.
The Pantry, Sanford, N.C., took the No. 317 spot, with $8.08 billion in revenue.
Among the hardest hit in 2008 were financial services companies, Fortune said. Banks, securities firms and insurers took cumulative losses of $213.4 billion, accounting for almost 70% of the total dollar decline from the peak year of 2006, the magazine said. Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., which were No. 8 and No. 9 respectively last year, each slipped a couple notches from the Top 10.
And 38 companies fell off this year's list, including financial firms Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Washington Mutual Inc. and Wachovia Corp., all of which have either gone under or been acquired by rival banks.
The title of "biggest loser" went to AIG Corp. The insurer, which has received more than $180 billion in government bailout aid since last fall, fell 232 spots to 245 in this year's ranking.
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