Latest Global Fortune 500 list

In terms of Revenue, Royal Dutch Shell became the largest company, with turnover of $ 458,4 billion, followed by Exxon Mobil with $ 442,9 billion, Wal-Mart with $ 405,6 Bp with $ 367,1 and Chevron with $263,2 billion

In terms of absolute Nett Profit, Exxon Mobil was most profitable in 2008, with profits of $45,2 billion, followed by Gazprom with $29,9 billion, Royal Dutch Shell with $ 26,3, Chevron with $23,9 billion and BP with $21,2 billion. The most profitable non-oil company was Microsoft in 7th position with $ 17,7 billion. For many companies, even if it just had the digit after the company would make them very happy. To put this in perspective, the Nett Profit of the 6th most profitable company, Petrobras, is more than the revenue of the company that is 500th on the list in terms of revenue. The magic number to be on the Global Fortune 500 list in terms of revenue was $ 18,6 billion.

In terms of Return on Revenues for companies, CVRD was most most profitable in 2008, with a percentage of 35,3, followed by Merck with 32,7 , Microsoft with 29,3 , Occidental Petroleum with 2 and Philips Morris with 26,8.

In terms of Return on Revenues for industries, Mining and Crude0-Oil Production, with an industry average percentage of 19,8, followed by Pharmaceuticals with 19,1 , Tobacco with 12,3 , Food Consumer products with 11,9 and Household and Personal products with 9,9

To put Exxon Mobil's profits in perspective, that is more than the GDP of the country in the world that is ranked 77th in terms of nominal GDP(according to the IMF's rankings). To be in the top 50, a company's profits has to be larger than than the GDP of the country in the world that is ranked 148th in terms of nominal GDP.

In reverse order, Fannie Mae was the least profitable with a loss of $58,7 billion, followed by RBS with a loss of $43,2, followed by GM with a loss of $30,9 billion, and Citibank with a loss of $27,7 billion. No-one would be surprised about which companies had the highest losses, but it does show the magnitude of the problem they were having.

To put those losses in perspective, GM's loss is larger than the GDP of the country in the world that is ranked 58th in terms of nominal GDP(according to the IMF's rankings)

Source : Fortune Global 500 list and International Monetary Fund