Everyday Happenings – Ch 11, M&A and Divesting to Bimbo
Watching the global business wire on a dailybasis can be like looking into a kaleidoscope. It is an ever changing picture. Just this week we noted a few events that reflect the overall trends in today’s world. Ambac Financial filed Chapter 11 – another financial firm struggling in the wake of the recession and financial mess. Chevron […]
A Health Care Merger
In the news today, McKesson (# 46 on the G5000 list) has agreed to acquire private company US Oncology (#1686 on the G5000 with $3.3 billion) . We know the Health Care sector is huge — over $3 trillion – and a hot spot in the news these days. There are 250 companies in all […]
Merger of Utilities
Northeast Utilities and NSTAR announced they are combining forces. These are two big utility companies. Northeast is #1231 on the Global 5000 list and NSTAR is ranked #1672. Combined, they will be in the top 1000 companies in the world. Utilities did not escape the economic downturn — and in fact, coming off robust growth […]
More Big(ger) Pharma
This week, Pfizer (#163 of the Global 5000 list) announced it was acquiring King Pharmaceuticals (#2441 on our list). This will add another $1.7 billion of revenue to Pfizer and move them up a few notches on our list. As always, those who sell products and services to King will now have to monitor the […]
Telecom & Technology – a Sliding Revenue Trend
Each company in the Global 5000 is categorized according to the industry group to which it belongs. In this scheme, we separate technology companies (computers, software, semiconductors) from telecommunications providers. As we look at the companies in these two segments, we get an inkling of the struggles the global economy is having coming out of […]
Deals, Deals, Deals
The news wires were alive at the start of the week with announcements of three big deals among Global 5000 firms. Unilever (#129) announced it is acquiring Alberto Culver (#2518) WalMart (#3) is acquiring South Africa’s Massmart retailing organization. Southwest Airlines (#831) is acquiring AirTran (#1933) It has been well covered in the business press […]
Another Era – Blockbuster
We now know how quickly the world changes. Technology disrupts long standing business. The web, wireless and smart devices bring instant communications and transparency. And the rate of change seems to continually accelerate. Wasn’t is just a few (pre-Tivo) years ago that Blockbuster stores were all the rage? We know it has been coming for […]
Burger King Buyout – going more global
One thing we focus on is the continual movement of companies, markets and industries to grow more globally. The slow (or no) growth of economies in the US and Europe combined with fast growing countries like China mean that companies have to look for growth other than where they have in the recent past. Today’s […]
A Tale of 2 Countries – Italy and Australia
We had a request to look at the Global 5000 companies in Italy and Australia and are sharing that here. There are 42 G5000 companies in Australia and 28 in Italy. Interesting in that Italy has more than twice the population of Australia (approx 58 million vs 21) and twice the GDP as well The […]
Despite the Turmoil … the largest Global 5000 looks similar
With all the financial market turmoil in the past couple of years, a look at the summary stats for the Global5000 look the same as they have in the past few years. There are approximately 110 companies that have revenue over $62 billion (USD). That’s the same as last year. Many of the players have […]