Fortune, Forbes Release Their ‘500’ Lists : Publishing: Both ranked GM as the country’s largest firm and coincidentally made their announcements on the same day.
Fortune and Forbes magazines found one thing they could agree on Tuesday in their competitive lists of America’s corporate titans. Both proclaimed General Motors Corp. the nation’s largest public company.
The Fortune 500 list, the annual ranking familiar on Main Street as well as Wall Street, ranked the nation’s largest industrial firms by sales. The Forbes ranking included all public companies measured by sales, profit, assets and stock market value.
Both magazines have issued 500 rankings for years, but this was the first time in recent memory that the lists were released the same day. In an effort to upstage its competitor, Forbes topped its rankings with the “Super 50” it considered the most powerful companies across all categories.
GM was on top either way, with nearly $127 billion in sales and $4.2 billion in earnings during 1989 despite fierce foreign competition and cutthroat rebates that dampened business for all Big Three auto makers.
The Fortune 500 overall also showed a profit decline in 1989 after years of strong growth, reflecting the slowdown in industrial America.
Behind GM, the rest of Fortune’s top 10 were: Ford Motor Co., Exxon Corp., International Business Machines Corp., General Electric Co., Mobil Corp., Philip Morris Co., Chrysler Corp., Du Pont Co. and Texaco Inc.
Rounding out the top 10 of the Forbes Super 50 were: GE, Exxon, IBM, Ford, Philip Morris, American Telephone & Telegraph Corp., Mobil, Du Pont and Sears, Roebuck & Co.
The Fortune 500 list appears in the April 23 edition and will be available on newsstands beginning today. Forbes released its ranking two weeks before it is to hit the stands in the April 30 edition.
“It’s a horse race every year,” said Forbes spokesman Ray Healey, describing his magazine’s rush to beat rival Fortune.
But Marshall Loeb, Fortune managing editor, dismissed the competition: “Fortune has been at the 500 for years and years. It’s part of the language. I’ve never heard anyone in conversation say, ‘We’re part of the Forbes 500.’ ”
Fortune 500 sales jumped 7% to a record $2.16 trillion in 1989, but overall earnings fell 8.2% to $105.6 billion. In the previous two years, profits among the big manufacturers had climbed an unprecedented 79%.
Median profit fell in nine of Fortune’s 27 industry groups and only 264 of the top 500 companies had earnings growth, down from 327 in 1988.
Pharmaceuticals had the largest median increase in earnings, up 19.6%; followed by beverages, 18.3%; textiles, 15.3%; food, 14%, and electronics, 10%.
The motor vehicles and parts industry suffered the largest median earnings decline, down 25%, followed by aerospace, down 12.5%; petroleum refining, down 11.8%; transportation equipment, down 9.4%, and computers, down 9%.
Fortune said six of the 10 largest industrial companies suffered double-digit earnings declines, including a 66% drop at Chrysler, whose ranking was dropped a notch from 1988.
“In the 1960s and 1970s, back before global competition became so intense and incessant, the earnings of the 500 companies invariably rose as long as the domestic economy was growing. Not any more,” Fortune said.
Foreign competition, especially from the Japanese, was particularly fierce in the motor vehicles and parts industry, which ranked as the poorest performer by nearly every measure of profitability, according to Fortune. That sector also was hurt by high interest rates and rebates.
GM had by far the largest profit during 1989, while No. 46 Sun Co., an energy resources business, had the biggest profit jump, up 1,300%.
Maxxam Inc., an aluminum products and lumber company that soared to 184th place from 485th, had the biggest sales increase, up 366.7%, according to Fortune.
Another big jump occurred due to Time Inc.’s acquisition of Warner Communications Inc.
THE FORTUNE LIST
Here are the top 25 companies on the Fortune 500, a ranking of the nation’s largest industrial companies compiled by Fortune magazine on the basis of 1989 sales.
Last year’s 1989 sales Rank Company rank (billions) 1 General Motors, Detroit 1 $126.974 2 Ford Motor, Dearborn, Mich. 2 96.933 3 Exxon, New York 3 86.656 4 IBM, Armonk, N.Y. 4 63.438 5 General Electric, Fairfield 5 55.264 ,Conn. 6 Mobil, New York 6 50.976 7 Philip Morris, New York 10 39.069 8 Chrysler, Highland Park, 7 36.156 Mich. 9 E.I. du Pont de Nemours, 9 35.209 Wilmington, Del. 10 Texaco, White Plains, N.Y. 8 32.416 11 Chevron, San Francisco 11 29.443 12 Amoco, Chicago 12 24.214 13 Shell Oil, Houston 13 21.703 14 Procter & Gamble, 15 21.689 Cincinnati 15 Boeing, Seattle 19 20.276 16 Occidental Petroleum, 14 20.068 Los Angeles 17 United Technologies, 16 19.766 Hartford, Conn. 18 Eastman Kodak, Rochester, 18 18.398 N.Y. 19 USX, Pittsburgh 23 17.755 20 Dow Chemical, Midland, 21 17.730 Mich. 21 Xerox, Stamford, Conn. 22 17.635 22 Atlantic Richfield, 17 15.905 Los Angeles 23 Pepsico, Purchase, N.Y. 26 15.420 24 RJR Nabisco Holdings, 20 15.224 New York 25 McDonnell Douglas, 25 14.995 St. Louis
