Despite a huge drop in oil prices because of the global recession, Exxon Mobile is now tops on the Fortune 500, toppling Wal-Mart in the 2009 Fortune 500 list. Wal-Mart had held the top spot for 7 straight years.
In reality, despite the global downturn, last year Exxon Mobil reported what analysts said was the largest quarterly profit ever by any US corporation.
Fortune's list, released Sunday, ranks companies by their annual revenue. In 2008, Irving, Texas-based Exxon took in $442.85 billion in revenue last year, up nearly 19% from 2007. As if that weren't enough, Exxon Mobil had the biggest annual profit, earning $45.2 billion.
Meanwhile, poor Wal-Mart (hah!) fell to No. 2 this year. It managed a 7% increase in revenue to $405.6 billion. Wal-Mart also had $13.4 billion in annual profit, an increase of about 5%.
Despite Wal-Mart's number two rank in the Fortune 500, when it comes to profit, Exxon Mobil's fellow oil company, Chevron, was number 2 in profits, with $23.9 billion. And despite recent layoffs, Microsoft was number 3 in profits, with $17.68 billion.
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