The Fortune 1000 is a list of America's largest companies maintained by Fortune magazine. The list was originally the Fortune 500 until the number was expanded in 2006 to the 1,000 level. While Fortune still puts more emphasis on the Fortune 500, the companies in the second half of the Fortune 100 use the prestige of the list as a marketing and branding opportunity.
Criteria
Fortune lists the top 1,000 companies in the United States by sales. The ranking is based on how much each company generates in revenue and not by market value or profits. The list includes both publicly traded companies and private companies. Fortune updates the list each year and publishes an interactive list of the Fortune 500 online that can be sorted by a range of attributes.
History
The Fortune 500 was created in 1955. In that year, General Motors was the largest company in America by sales. In that first year, companies with names like Mansfield Tire & Rubber and Copperweld Steel were at the bottom of the list. GM would remain at the top of the Fortune 500 until 1975 when long-time number 2, Exxon Mobil grabbed the top spot. GM and Exxon alternated in the top two places until the 1990's when Ford made it a triumvirate alternating into number one. The top company for 2010, Walmart broke up the big three in 1999 when it was listed as the third-largest company in the U.S.
Top Fortune 100 Companies
In 2010, the top five companies on the Fortune 1000 were Walmart, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, General Electric and Bank of America. Walmart has been the top company on the Fortune 1000 for most of the 21st century, to date. Here are the rankings for other well known companies: AT&T, number 7; General Motors, number 15 in spite of going bankrupt in 2008; Microsoft, number 38; Apple, number 56; Coca Cola at number 72 and Amazon.com at number 100.
The Little Guys
The focus on the Fortune 1000 tends to be which company is on top and which big names are moving up and down. There are 1,000 companies on the list and smaller firms that make the cut can be proud to be included. Here is the list of companies holding down positions 991 to 1,000 for 2010: Polaris Industries, Scripps Networks, Interactive, Selective Insurance Group, Lincare Holdings, Covanta Holding, Fossil, Mueller Industries, Dollar Thrifty Automotive, Michael Foods and SRA International.
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