Changes since publication

Change in Presentation
This year the Ranked Within Industries section in the magazine, which has traditionally included the companies in the Fortune 1,000, lists only those in the Fortune 500. However, all of the Fortune 1,000 companies are included on the Fortune website.

Please note that Fortune lists industry breakouts when there are at least two companies in the industry; if there is only one company, it is listed under Miscellaneous. Four industries have only one member ranked within the Fortune 500, but have two or more members when the Fortune 1,000 companies are included. Therefore those four companies (Aramark, Automatic Data Processing, Mattel, and Leggett & Platt) appear under Miscellaneous in the magazine but appear in their respective industries in the web listing. Those companies are identified in the industry listing.

In addition, How the Industries Stack Up is available only on the website.

Methodology
Included in the survey are U.S. incorporated companies filing financial statements with a government agency. This includes private companies and cooperatives that file a 10-K and mutual insurance companies that file with state regulators. This also includes companies owned by private companies, domestic or foreign, that do not file financial statements with a government agency. Excluded are private companies not filing with a government agency; companies incorporated outside the U.S.; companies owned or controlled by other U.S. companies that file with a government agency; and U.S. companies owned or controlled by other companies, domestic or foreign, that file with a government agency. Also excluded are public companies that failed to report full financial statements to the SEC for at least three quarters of the current fiscal year.

Revenues
Revenues are as reported, including revenues from discontinued operations when published. If a spinoff is on the list, it has not been included in discontinued operations. The revenues for commercial banks and savings institutions are interest and noninterest revenues. Revenues for insurance companies include premium and annuity income, investment income, and capital gains or losses, but exclude deposits. Revenues figures for all companies include consolidated subsidiaries and exclude excise taxes. Data shown are for the fiscal year ended on or before Jan. 31, 2008. Unless otherwise noted, all figures are for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007.

Profits
Profits are shown after taxes; after extraordinary credits or charges, if any, that appear on the income statement; and after cumulative effects of accounting changes. Figures in parentheses indicate a loss. Profit declines of more than 100% reflect swings from 2006 profits to 2007 losses. Profits for real estate investment trusts, partnerships, and cooperatives are reported but are not comparable with those of the other companies on the list because they are not taxed on a comparable basis. Profits for mutual insurance companies are based on statutory accounting.

Balance Sheet
Assets are the company's year-end total.
Stockholders' equity is the sum of all capital stock, paid-in capital, and retained earnings at the company's year-end. Redeemable preferred stock whose redemption is either mandatory or outside the company's control is excluded. Dividends paid on such stock have been subtracted from the profit figures used in calculating return on equity.

Market Value
The market-value figure shown was arrived at by multiplying the number of common shares outstanding by the price per common share as of March 28, 2008. If companies have more than one class of shares outstanding and an equivalent share number is not available, the respective market values for each share class are calculated and combined.

Earnings Per Share
The figure shown for each company is the diluted earnings-per-share figure that appears on the income statement. Per share earnings are adjusted for stock splits and stock dividends. They are not restated for mergers, acquisitions, or accounting changes. The only change to the prior year's EPS is for a significant restatement due to reporting errors that require a company to file an amended 10-K.

Though earnings-per-share numbers are not marked by footnotes, if a company's profits are footnoted it can be assumed that earnings per share is affected as well. The five-year and ten-year earnings-growth rates are the annual rates, compounded.

Total Return to Investors
Total return to investors includes both price appreciation and dividend yield to an investor in the company's stock. The figures shown assume sales at the end of 2007 of stock owned at the end of 1997, 2002, and 2006, respectively. It has been assumed that any proceeds from cash dividends and stock received in spinoffs were reinvested when they were paid. Returns are adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, recapitalizations, and corporate reorganizations as they occur; however, no effort has been made to reflect the cost of brokerage commissions or of taxes.

Results are not listed if shares are not publicly traded or are traded on a limited basis. If companies have more than one class of shares outstanding, only the most widely held and actively traded class has been considered. Total return percentages shown are the returns received by the hypothetical investor described above. The five-year and ten-year returns are the annual rates, compounded.

Medians
No attempt has been made to calculate the median figures in the tables in groups of fewer than four companies. The medians for profit changes from 2006 to 2007 do not include companies that lost money in 2006 or lost money in both 2006 and 2007, because no meaningful percentage changes can be calculated in such cases.

Employees
Employee figures are as of fiscal year-end or latest available.

Credits
This Fortune 500 directory was prepared under the direction of senior list editor L. Michael Cacace and senior reporter Richard K. Tucksmith. Income statement and balance sheet data were reviewed and verified against published earnings releases, 10-K filings, and annual reports by reporter Douglas G. Elam and accounting specialists Rhona Altschuler and Lora Martens. Market specialist Kathleen Smyth used the same sources to check earnings-per-share data. In addition, she used data provided by SunGard FAME to calculate total return and market value. Database administrator Larry Shine provided technical support. Mark Frawley and Rit Saraswat assisted with data gathering and verification. The data verification process was aided by information provided by SNL Financial LC on commercial banks, savings banks, and real estate investment trusts, and by Mergent Inc., Thomson Corp., and 10-K Wizard on all companies that filed 10-Ks.

Contacts
If you have further questions about the Fortune 500, please e-mail lists@cnnmoney.com.

Changes since publication

Acquisitions/Ownership changes:
Grant Prideco (rank: 863) was acquired by National Oilwell Varco, April 21, 2008.
Quanex (rank: 880) was acquired by Gerdau SA, April 23, 2008.
UAP Holding (rank: 699) was acquired by Agrium, Calgary, Canada, May 7, 2008.
Sirva (rank: 552) emerged from bankruptcy as a private company, May 12, 2008.
Bear Stearns (rank: 156) was acquired by JP Morgan Chase (rank: 12), May 30, 2008.
Commerce Group (rank: 902) was acquired by Mapre SA, Spain, June 4, 2008.
Trane (rank: 241) was acquired by Ingersoll-Rand, Bermuda, June 5, 2008.
Countrywide Financial (rank: 104) was acquired by Bank of America Corp.(rank: 9), July 1, 2008.
IndyMac Bancorp (rank: 893) was seized by the FDIC, July 11, 2008.
CSK Auto (rank: 767) was acquired by O'Reilly Automotive, July 11, 2008.
E.W. Scripps (rank: 768) spun off Scripps Networks Interactive, July 1, 2008.
Clear Channel Communications (rank: 339) was taken private by Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners, July 30, 2008.
Superior Essex (rank: 675) was acquired by LS Cable Ltd., South Korea, Aug. 7, 2008.
Electronic Data Systems (rank: 115) was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (rank: 14), Aug. 26, 2008.
Energy East (rank: 463) was acquired by Iberdrola, Bilbao, Spain, Sept. 17, 2008.
Fannie Mae (rank: 53) was seized by Federal regulators, Sept. 7, 2008 and Herbert M. Allison, Jr., replaced Daniel H. Mudd as CEO Sept. 8, 2008.
Freddie Mac (rank: 54) was seized by Federal regulators, Sept. 7, 2008 and David M. Moffett replaced Richard F. Syron as CEO Sept. 8, 2008.
Federal government loaned American International Group (rank: 13) $85 billion and acquired a 79.9% stake in the company, Sept. 16, 2008.
Lehman Brothers Holdings (rank: 37) filed for bankruptcy, Sept. 15, 2008.
Goldman Sachs Group (rank: 20) became a bank holding company, Sept. 21, 2008.
Morgan Stanley (rank: 21) became a bank holding company, Sept. 21, 2008.
Safeco (rank: 388) was acquired by Liberty Mutual (rank: 94), Sept. 22, 2008.
Washington Mutual (rank: 97) was seized by the FDIC then sold to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (rank: 12), Sept. 25, 2008.
Wm. Wrigley Jr. . (rank: 448) was acquired by Mars, Oct. 6, 2008.
DRS Technologies (rank: 707) was acquired by Finmeccanica, Italy, Oct. 22, 2008.
Apria Healthcare Group (rank: 997) was acquired by Blackstone Group, Oct. 28, 2008.
Ikon Office Solutions (rank: 541) was acquired by Ricoh, Japan, Oct. 31, 2008.
Anheuser-Busch (rank: 149) was acquired by InBev, Belgium, Nov. 18, 2008.
Hercules (rank: 858) was acquired by Ashland, Nov. 13, 2008.

Name changes:
Citizens Communications (rank: 818) changed its name to Frontier Communications, July 31, 2008.
Cleveland-Cliffs changed its name to Cliffs Natural Resources, Oct. 15, 2008.
Sierra Pacific Resources (rank: 592) changed its name to NV Energy Inc., Nov. 19, 2008.

CEO changes:
Klaus Kleinfeld replaced Alain J.P. Belda as CEO of Alcoa (rank: 80), effective May 8, 2008.
Donald J. Stebbins replaces Michael F. Johnston as CEO of Visteon (rank: 234) , effective June 1, 2008.
Theodore A. Mathas replaces Seymour G. Sternberg as CEO of New York Life Insurance (rank: 82), July 1, 2008.
Muhtar Kent replaces E. Neville Isdell as CEO of Coca-Cola (rank: 83), July, 1, 2008.
Kenneth W. Stecher replaces John J. Schiff Jr. as CEO of Cincinnati Financial (rank: 530), July 1, 2008.
Peter Swinburn replaces W. Leo Kiely III as CEO of Molson Coors Brewing (rank: 530), July 1, 2008.
Ms. Lynn L. Elsenhans will replace John G. Drosdick as CEO of Sunoco (rank: 56), Aug. 8, 2008.
Robert K. Steel replaced interim CEO Lanty L. Smith at Wachovia Corp. (rank: 38) July 8. Mr. Smith had replaced G. Kennedy Thompson June 2.
Alan Rosskamm replaced Ms. Dorrit J. Bern as CEO of Charming Shoppes (rank: 672), July 9, 2008.
Dirk Meyer replaces Hector de J. Ruiz as CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (rank: 406), July 18, 2008.
Sanjay Jha was named co-CEO of Motorola (rank: 65), Aug. 4, 2008.
Jack A. Fusco replaced Robert P. May as CEO of Calpine (rank: 318), Aug. 10, 2008.
James A. Marcum became acting President and CEO of Circuit City Stores (rank: 215), replacing CEO Philip J. Schoonover, Sept. 22, 2008.
Fannie Mae (rank: 53) was seized by Federal regulators, Sept. 7, 2008 and Herbert M. Allison, Jr., replaced Daniel H. Mudd as CEO Sept. 8, 2008.
Freddie Mac (rank: 54) was seized by Federal regulators, Sept. 7, 2008 and David M. Moffett replaced Richard F. Syron as CEO Sept. 8, 2008.
Alan H. Fishman replaced Kerry K. Killinger as CEO of Washington Mutual (rank: 97), Sept. 8, 2008.
Edward Liddy replaced Robert B. Willumstad as CEO of American International Group (rank: 13), Sept. 15, 2008. Willumstad had replaced Martin J. Sullivan, June 16, 2008. Federal government loaned AIG $85 billion and acquired a 79.9% stake in the company, Sept. 16, 2008.
Mr. Kelly S. King will replace John A. Allison IV as CEO of BB&T Corp. (rank: 250), Dec. 31, 2008.
Gregory L. Christopher became CEO of Mueller Industries (rank: 729) upon the death of CEO William D. O'Hagan, Oct. 27, 2008.
Marshall C. Turner replaces Nabeel Gareeb, as interim CEO of MEMC Electronic Materials (rank: 913), Nov. 14, 2008.
Tamara L. Lundgren will replace John D. Carter as CEO of Schnitzer Steel Industries (rank: 757), Dec. 1, 2008. Mr. Carter becomes Chairman.
James J. Murren replaces J. Terrence Lanni, who resigned as CEO of MGM Mirage (rank: 323), Nov. 30, 2008.