Apple moves up 56 spots on Fortune 500 list
Summary: Apple moved up 56 spots from last year to come in at #55 on this year's list. Apple ranked seventh in terms of profit this year.
FORTUNE magazine has released its FORTUNE Global 500 list, its annual ranking of the world’s largest corporations ranked by revenue.
In this year's installment Apple moved up 56 spots (from #110 to #55) and perhaps more importantly ranked #7 in terms of profit. In April 2009 Apple landed in Fortune 100 for first time since Steve Jobs' return.
Just a few years ago no one would have imagined a Global 500 list without telecom equipment titan Alcatel-Lucent or Research in Motion. Yet they’ve fallen off, while rivals Huawei (No. 351, up from No. 397 on the list in 2010) and Apple (No. 55, up 56 spots this year) march up the ranks.
This accompanying map shows the headquarters of the Fortune 500 listed companies, layered over data showing each country's gains in gross national income from 2000 to 2010 suggesting that the Global 500 isn't just a measure of corporate muscle but also an indicator of prosperity.
But it's this chart that probably tells the bigger story. Corporate income is increasingly moving from the United States to countries like China.
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Talkback
Wealth drain
Nice to see the latest infographic of western demise. All care of our American-gone-multinational corpses, uh, corporations. Naturally with plenty of help from their funded bootlickers, the politicos they buy off in the name of shepherding the people. What a racket.
Not that anyone who matters cares, as long as they're getting their tiny (or, uh, not so tiny) piece of the diminishing pie. But their grandchildren will.