The 25 Biggest IT Companies On The 2014 Fortune 500
Who's Up And Who's Down
Fortune recently released the 2014 version of its annual ranking of the 500 largest public corporations in the U.S. And IT companies, not surprisingly, are well represented. We've pulled out the 25 largest IT companies on the list for a closer look, checking out which ones are growing and moving up, and which ones are moving down.
In a sign of the overall health of the industry, 15 of the 25 gained ground in this year's rankings while seven declined and three held steady. A couple of companies, including Dell and Sprint, are no longer on the list because they were taken private.
Here's the 25 largest IT companies on the list, starting with the smallest and moving up. Any guesses as to which is the biggest this year?
Synnex Corp.
CEO: Kevin Murai
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 260
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 262
Synnex reported revenue of $10.8 billion for fiscal 2013, up 5.4 percent from the previous year. That was enough for the distributor and business process services company to move up two spots on this year's Fortune 500 ranking.
Texas Instruments
CEO: Richard Templeton
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 227
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 218
Chip maker Texas Instruments fell 11 spots on the 2014 Fortune 500 list. For fiscal 2013 TI reported sales of $12.2 billion, down almost 5 percent from the previous year.
Western Digital Corp.
CEO: Stephen Milligan
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 187
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 222
Storage device manufacturer Western Digital surged up 35 spots this year's Fortune 500 ranking, the biggest gainer among the top 25 IT companies on the list. For fiscal 2013 the company reported 23 percent revenue growth to $15.4 billion.
Computer Sciences Corp.
CEO: Mike Lawrie
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 185
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 176
Computer Sciences Corp. dropped nine spots on this year's Fortune 500 ranking, with its fiscal 2013 revenue declining 3.1 percent to $15.4 billion. The IT systems integrator and services company has been divesting itself of businesses it considers to be non-core to its business, leading to the revenue decline.
CSC is No. 4 on CRN's 2014 Solution provider 500 list.
CenturyLink
CEO: Glen Post
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 158
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 150
Communications services company CenturyLink tumbled eight positions down this year's Fortune 500 ranking, ending up at No. 158. The company's revenue for fiscal 2013 was just shy of $18.1 billion, down 1.5 percent from the previous year.
Arrow Electronics
CEO: Michael Long
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 138
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 141
Arrow Electronics came in at No. 138, a gain of three spots from last year. In fiscal 2013 the distributor racked up total revenue of $21.4 billion, up almost 5 percent year-over-year.
Xerox
CEO: Ursula Burns
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 137
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 131
Xerox tumbled eight positions on the 2014 Fortune 500 list, slipping below EMC among the IT vendors on the list. The company recorded fiscal 2013 sales of $21.8 billion, down 2.5 percent from the previous year.
EMC
CEO: Joseph Tucci
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 128
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 133
Data storage giant EMC moved up five spots on the 2014 Fortune 500 list, passing by Xerox along the way. For fiscal 2013 EMC recorded sales of $23.2 billion, up almost 7 percent from the prior year.
Emerson Electric
CEO: David Farr
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 121
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 123
Emerson Electric reported sales of $24.7 billion for fiscal 2013. While that represented a gain of less than 1 percent, it was good enough to move the company up two spots on this year's Fortune 500 list.
Qualcomm
CEO: Steven Mollenkopf
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 120
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 149
Qualcomm, the manufacturer of chipsets, modems and other electronics products, rocketed 29 spots up this year's Fortune 500 ranking, surpassing a number of other IT companies on the list including Emerson Electric, EMC, Xerox and Arrow Electronics. Qualcomm's rise was due to its 30 percent revenue growth in fiscal 2013 to $24.9 billion.
Avnet
CEO: Rick Hamada
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 117
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 117
Distributor Avnet is No. 117 on the 2014 Fortune 500 list, retaining the same ranking it had last year. With a 1 percent decline in fiscal 2013 revenue to $25.5 billion, Avnet was lucky it didn't drop any spots this year.
Tech Data
CEO: Robert Dutkowsky
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 111
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 119
Distributor Tech Data moved up an impressive 8 spots on this year's Fortune 500 ranking, thanks to its 5.8 percent fiscal 2014 (ended Jan. 31) revenue growth to $26.8 billion.
Tech Data leapfrogged distributor Avnet, which held steady on the Fortune 500 at No. 117.
Oracle
CEO: Larry Ellison
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 82
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 80
The company's fiscal 2013 revenue of just under $37.2 billion was essentially flat from the previous year (up a piddling 0.2 percent). While "flat is the new growth" was the mantra during the Great Recession, companies today generally need to grow just to hold their positions on the Fortune 500 ranking. That's why Oracle dropped two spots to No. 82 on this year's list.
Ingram Micro
CEO: Alain Monie
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 69
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 76
Distributor Ingram Micro moved up an impressive seven spots on this year's Fortune 500 list. That's due to the company's 12.5 percent revenue growth in fiscal 2013 to $42.6 billion.
Cisco Systems
CEO: John Chambers
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 55
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 60
Cisco Systems moved up an impressive five spots on this year's Fortune 500 list, thanks to its fiscal 2013 revenue growth of 5.5 percent to $48.6 billion.
But Cisco will be hard-pressed to maintain those gains. In the first three quarters (ended April 26) of the company's fiscal 2014 the networking gear manufacturer's revenue declined almost 4 percent to $34.8 billion. Unless Cisco pulls off some fourth-quarter magic, holding onto No. 55 on next year's ranking could be tough.
Intel
CEO: Brian Krzanich
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 53
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 54
Chip-maker Intel crept up the Fortune 500 list one spot this year despite a 1.2 percent decline in fiscal 2013 sales to $52.7 billion.
Intel may have benefited from the fact that Dell, No. 51 last year, wasn't on this year's list because the company was taken private in October, making room for others to move up. But Intel also has Cisco Systems coming up behind it.
CEO: Larry Page
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 46
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 55
Search engine giant Google made up some serious ground on this year's Fortune 500 ranking, jumping nine spots to No. 46 thanks to fiscal 2013 revenue growth of more than 16 percent to $60.6 billion.
Google surpassed Intel on the list, not to mention such industry giants as Dow Chemical, Caterpillar and Pfizer.
Comcast
CEO: Brian Roberts
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 44
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 46
Comcast managed to move up the Fortune 500 two spots thanks to its 3.3 percent growth in fiscal 2013 to revenue of $64.7 billion. But the cable and Internet services giant better watch out because fast-growing Google is only two spots behind.
Amazon.com
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 35
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 49
CEO: Jeff Bezos
Online retailer giant Amazon.com shot up the Fortune 500 rankings this year to No. 35, thanks to its nearly 22 percent year-over-year growth to sales of $74.5 billion in fiscal 2013.
Amazon's rapid growth helped the company surge past Comcast among the IT companies on the Fortune 500 list. And Amazon is now a (relatively speaking) piddling $3.4 billion behind Microsoft (No. 34) on the list.
Microsoft
CEO: Satya Nadella
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 34
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 35
Microsoft moved up a notch on this year's Fortune 500 ranking with its fiscal 2013 revenue of $77.8 billion (up 5.6 percent). With a new CEO in place, following the retirement of Steven Ballmer, and a plan to transform itself into a services and devices company, it will be interesting to see how the company fares in next year's ranking.
IBM
CEO: Ginni Rometty
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 23
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 20
IBM, for many years the biggest company in the IT industry, dropped three spots to No. 23 after its fiscal 2013 revenue declined more than 4 percent to $99.8 billion. But that was still good enough to remain the fifth largest IT company on this year's Fortune 500 list.
Hewlett-Packard
CEO: Meg Whitman
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 17
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 15
IBM wasn't the only IT company slipping in this year's Fortune 500 ranking. Hewlett-Packard was the biggest technology company on the Fortune 500 two years ago (at No. 10). But the company's fiscal 2013 sales of $112.3 billion were only good enough for No. 17 on this year's list, right behind Verizon Communications.
Verizon Communications
CEO: Lowell McAdam
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 16
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 16
Verizon retained the No. 16 spot on the 2014 Fortune 500 list with fiscal 2013 revenue of $120.6 billion. But with Hewlett-Packard, last year's No. 3, dropping down this year's list, telecommunications and Internet service provider Verizon became the third-largest IT company on the Fortune 500.
AT&T
CEO: Randall Stephenson
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 11
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 11
AT&T retained the No. 11 spot on this year's Fortune 500 ranking (coming in behind No. 10 Valero Energy and ahead of No. 12 CVS Caremark) with fiscal 2013 revenue of $128.8 billion. The telecommunications giant also remained the second largest IT company on the list.
Apple
CEO: Tim Cook
2014 Fortune 500 Rank: 5
2013 Fortune 500 Rank: 6
In fiscal 2013 Apple's sales grew 9.2 percent to $170.9 billion. That was enough to push the company up one spot to No. 5, right behind Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway and just ahead of Phillips 66.
Apple, as it was in 2013, is the largest IT company on the Fortune 500 ranking.
