2008 worst year for top 500 US companies

The year 2008 was the worst year ever for Fortune Magazines' top 500 US corporations, with the companies registering an 84.7 percent decline in profits. It was in 1955 that Fortune magazine published the very first Fortune 500 list. It is an annual compilation of America's 500 largest companies with its changing roster reflecting the current economic climate. Fortune magazine has been publishing this annual report every year since its first publication. "Everything that happens in business in the United States shows up in one way or another in the 500," said Carol Loomis, Fortune's senior editor-at-large on Sunday. "It's a mirror to the economy." Since 1955, more than 2,000 companies have earned a spot on the list, but in 55 years only three have achieved the number one slot; General Motors, Exxon Mobil and Wal-Mart. Originally, the list only included industrial corporations. The top 10 in 1955 included DuPont, US Steel and Gulf Oil. But by 1995 it was clear that America had shifted to a service economy, and corporations like AT&T and financial giants like Citicorp were included. "It's amazing how many companies that are today on the list didn't even exist when we first started the list," said Loomis citing companies like Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Costco and Google. Taking an initial look at this year's list, which is a historical accumulation of US top 500 corporation's earnings ever, indicates that 2008 was the worst year in the history of the Fortune 500 for America's largest companies. Eleven of the top 25 largest corporate losses in the list took place last year. The biggest loser was insurance giant AIG which posted a $99.3 billion loss but is still on the list and is still too big to fall off the list, however it ranked at number 245, down from number 13 just one year earlier. Thirty-eight companies disappeared from the list altogether including Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. Elsewhere, Anheuser Busch and William Wrigley Jr., are no longer on the top 500 list.