Wal-Mart has reclaimed the lead spot on the Fortune 500 list released today. For the past few years, the giant retailer has been .
This year, Exxon Mobil dropped to No. 2.
:
"For fiscal year 2012, sales rose 5.9%, to $443.9 billion. Despite relatively strong sales, Wal-Mart must hold onto its U.S. shoppers, which make up 62% of the chain's net sales.
"Beyond the U.S., Wal-Mart continues to investigate allegations that executives in Mexico paid more than $24 million in bribes to speed the retailer's expansion there. The probe has widened to Brazil, India and China."
Here are some other highlights from the list:
-- Facebook, which went public in May 2012, .
-- Its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, 28, is the youngest on the list.
-- Total revenue for all Fortune 500 companies was up 2.7 percent over the past year. Total profits, however, were down 0.5 percent.
-- Apple, which ranks sixth on the list, was the second most profitable company on the list. The most profitable, writes Fortune, was Exxon:
"The energy giant fell just short of setting a company — and world — record for profits this year. The last world record was set by — you guessed it — Exxon Mobil, back in 2008."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAxNDQ2NDAxMDEyNzU2NzM2ODA3ZGI1ZA001))
