Recession Hurt Many Firms on Fortune 500 List

NEW YORK —  The recession dogged the nation’s biggest companies last year, but General Motors Corp. remained No. 1 despite $2 billion in losses, Fortune magazine said Monday in its annual list of 500 top corporations.

A competing ranking, Forbes magazine’s “most powerful” American companies, didn’t mention GM because the auto maker didn’t make money in 1990.

The weakened economy was the dominant theme in the rankings. Fortune said half the 50 largest industrial companies on its list lost money or earned less. Overall, Fortune 500 profits fell 11.7%, even though sales rose 6.4%.

GM, with more than $126 billion in revenue, retained Fortune’s top spot despite an 0.8% drop in sales. Ford Motor Co. slipped to No. 3, and Chrysler Corp. tumbled three spots to No. 11.

Fortune bases its list on revenue and rates only industrial companies.

The magazine also compiles separate rankings of companies by profit, assets, stockholder equity and other financial indicators.

Forbes also ranks 500 companies by sales, profit, assets and market value. To distinguish itself from Fortune, it does a composite ranking across all categories to determine the “Super 50.”

On the composite list, General Electric Co. replaced GM as “most powerful” company, followed by Exxon, IBM, Philip Morris, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Mobil, Chevron, Du Pont, Ford and Amoco Corp.