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Category: Finance
Forbes publishes an annual list of 2000 world’s biggest companies. They are ranked according to 4 criteria – sales, profits, assets and market capitalization. The current list reflects 2007’s biggest companies, however, expect 2008’s landscape to be fairly different with companies like PetroChina making it towards the top of the list where as Citigroup and other banks probably tumbling down a few places. (List published towards the end of March.)
The Global 2000 (world’s largest public companies)
Related: PetroChina becomes world’s biggest company by market cap
“The mainland has leapfrogged past Japan to become the world’s second-largest stock market in terms of capitalisation, thanks to robust trading and a rash of mega listings.
Bloomberg’s tally put the total market value of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges yesterday at the equivalent of US$4.72 trillion. While the financial news service does not have an updated version of Japan’s stock market value, the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s website logged a total yesterday of 441.84 trillion yen (HK$32 trillion), translating to just US$4.11 trillion.”
As a survey reveals that 75 per cent of women would marry for money, a Times correspondent describes the pitfalls of life with a busy big earner. – Times Online
Related post: Money won’t buy you happiness
This year recorded the biggest opening for a movie ever as Spider-Man 3 (~$60 million), biggest opening for a video game as Halo 3 (~$170 million) and now the biggest opening for a stock market IPO as China’s PetroChina with a market capitalization of $1.1 Trillion!
PetroChina Co. almost tripled on its first day of trading in Shanghai, becoming the world’s first company to be valued at $1 trillion, more than Exxon Mobil Corp. and General Electric Co. combined [next two in the rankings].
PetroChina’s Value Tops $1 Trillion, Surpassing Exxon
Related Post: World’s biggest public companies
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Upcoming: Google’s Mobile OS
“Google, owner of the world’s most popular Internet search engine, today will announce the 30-member Open Handset Alliance, which includes Sprint, T-Mobile and phone makers Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the deal isn’t public yet.” – Bloomberg
(Google stock price has risen 2% on the news today to be at the current price of $725.)
The plummet of the dollar — The Chinese are sitting on too many dollars to divest; they would lose too much. The Europeans are taking advantage of the Chinese position, selling off greenbacks, forcing the dollar down faste.
“India has emerged the most popular destination for British patients wanting to undergo surgery for ailments that would otherwise take months to treat in the National Health Service (NHS).”
“Several websites based in India and Britain act as a single-window facility to arrange treatment for British nationals. Many of them return home, singing praises to the quality of treatment and post-operative care they received in India.”
The lesson: If you can get yourself into the comfort of middle class living, keep in mind that the longer and harder hours you’re putting in to climb the ladder from this point on probably won’t make you any happier.
I had the opportunity to attended the Future of Web Apps (FOWA) conference in London 3-5 October ’07. A key talk I eagerly awaited was one by Paul Graham on “The Future of Web Startups“. In his talk, Graham made a point, that to really succeed startups need to move to a hub like, and especially, Silicon Valley.
Ryan Carson, the organiser of the event, was not convinced by Graham’s claim and asserted his opinion on the stage after the talk. According to him, startups needn’t be in Silicon Valley to succeed.
This confutation was catered-to by Paul Graham in his following article/essay “Why to move to a startup hub” which in-turn spawned a debate led by Ryan Carson here and here.
According to