NEW YORK - Retail powerhouse Wal-Mart Stores topped the ranks of the biggest US companies for the fourth year in a row in the annual Fortune 500 list released Monday.
The ranking, based on annual revenues, places oil giant Exxon Mobil as number two and General Motors third, both unchanged from 2004.
The remaining top 10 companies are Ford Motor Co, followed by General Electric, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, Citigroup, American International Group and IBM.
Wal-Mart topped all US firms with revenues of 288 billion dollars last year, ahead of Exxon Mobil's 270 billion.
The Fortune ranking is based only on sales while other rankings of biggest companies may be based on other factors. Exxon Mobil is the world's largest firm based on stock market value, while Citigroup topped a recent ranking by Forbes magazine under a formula including sales, profits, assets and market value.
Only three companies, Wal-Mart, General Motors and Exxon Mobil, have held the number one spot since the inception of the Fortune 500 list in 1954.
Fortune pointed out that Exxon Mobil topped the charts in profits with 25.3 billion dollars, smashing the record set by Ford in 1998.
04/04/2005 15:12 GMT