The companies that make up the BusinessWeek 50 represent the star performers in each of the 10 sectors that make up the S&P 500. Given BW’s three-year measurement period, their list typically includes a number of companies that are riding the crest of different business cycles, which means this year’s rankings include seven companies that are benefiting from the surge in energy prices, as well as 10 companies that gained in different ways from the housing boom.
MacDailyNews Note: See how the 50 made the cut here.
The Class of 2008 is also among the most global groups of companies since we published our first rankings in 1997 and includes Apple Inc. at #6:
Industry: Computer Hardware
Sales: $26.5 billion
Net Income: $4.1 billion
Apple (AAPL) launched its latest category-busting gadget, the iPhone, in 2007, and its shares more than doubled. But investors may be more focused now on the stock’s 28% plunge since the start of 2008: The Cupertino (Calif.) company has become the poster child for market fears of a slowdown in consumer spending. Chief Executive Steve Jobs has signaled that, despite any recession, Apple won’t be trimming its R&D budget. With $18 billion in cash on hand, many expect the product- obsessed Jobs to go on the offensive. He has already announced a corporate version of the iPhone.
The list also includes:
1. Coach
2. Gilead Sciences
3. Allegheny Technologies
4. Verizon
5. Questar
…
23: Amazon.com
…
27: AT&T
…
34: Google
…
36: Best Buy
…
41: Microsoft
…
49: Nvidia
See the full list, along with their descriptions, here.
We’re number six! We’re number six!
Hmm, where is DELL?
In addition to including #34 Google, the short list should also include #18 Avon Products. Both CEOs are on the Apple board.
“Hmm, where is DELL?”
In a crappy little town just north of Austin innovating the crap out of thin margins while taking advantage of gullible, unwashed consumers with more money than sense.
who’s DELL
Didn’t the Prisoner #6 turn out to be # 1 in the end?
Why not, Apple is the next Microsoft. Apple even voted AGAINST the Open Document Format (ODF) in favor of Microsoft’s (unimplementable by anyone but Microsoft) OOXML. Nice slap in the face to the open source community whose source code is being conveniently used by Apple.
What is a DELL? That’s a person right? ha ha.
http://ThunkDifferent.com
@ “Open Source”
My guess is Apple unfortunately has some agreement thingy with Microsoft (possibly stretching back to the 1997 ceasefire between the two companies), which mandates them to support Office in this fashion.
While I agree 100% that Apple should be putting all its weight behind ODF instead of the farce that is the MSOOXML campaign (see http://www.noooxml.com/), it’s a bit of a stretch to jump from that to saying that Apple is “the next Microsoft”. Would “the next Microsoft” provide Webkit (the core of their Safari browser) as an open-source project?
(And btw, Leopard by default provides QuickLook support for ODF formats, and TextEdit can both read and save .odt files.)
Whoaaaa that was weird.
MDN seems to be suffering a white out. Nothing but white pages on every article page click the last 3 times I tried to read some scuttlebut. Maybe its the Safari upgrade.
Not bad considering some guy Pwned a Macbook Air in 2 minutes* and a Swiss Bank (or something) declared Macs unsafe ’cause Apple fixes more bugs than Microsoft.
Amazing how something as simple as putting George Ou out to pasture can take an average week and make it magically delicious.
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*Excludes 3 weeks of development.
I call pie
a dell is a small wooded valley.
Sometimes seen with a farmer in it.
Dell is not on the list at all.