Fortune 500 companies...Can someone explain what they are? How they work and qualifications.?

Question

I guess no one knows what they are!!

Answer 1

The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 American public corporations as measured by their gross revenue, although eligible companies are any for which revenues are publicly available (which is a larger universe than "public companies", as the term is commonly understood, meaning "companies having common stock that trades on a stock exchange").

Wal-Mart tops the list again in 2008, edging out Exxon Mobil which is in second place.

Fortune 100 and Fortune 1000 refer to lists of top firms ranked similarly.