It’s the summer holidays. The kids have broken up from school and it’s time to take a break from work and go on your well-earned holiday. Turn off your phone, don’t look at emails, leave your laptop at home and switch off. In fact, we wrote about just that topic a few weeks ago so take our advice. You’ll feel better for it when you’re eventually back at your desk, we promise!
In the spirit of taking a break, we thought we’d take a break from the norm. We’ve talked a lot in recent months about cybersecurity, data breaches, cloud security and the like so we decided to go easy this week and look at the world’s biggest tech companies. We all love a list every now and again, don’t we?
Big REALLY Means Big
It’s fair to say that perhaps more so than is usual, the last year has been a rollercoaster for global markets. Volatility ticked increasingly higher, stocks saw big rises and sharp falls, trade tensions between the US and, well, everywhere heated up and the dark cloak of Brexit hanging over us continues to wield unprecedented uncertainty, in turn affecting investment, locations, jobs and potentially the price of avocados.
In May, Forbes published their 17th annual list of the world’s biggest companies, The Global 2000 (ranked using a combination of four metrics – sales, profits, assets and market value) and this year, a record 184 tech companies made the list, up 40% on last year.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top 10 is dominated by seven banks (in a sign of the times three of the top five are Chinese banks with combined assets of an eye-watering $10.7 trillion) but there is a tech company in there too. Can you guess which one?
Of course it is, fruit fans.
In terms of the tech market, Jonathan Ponciano writing in Forbes says that ‘Smartphone sales continue to slip in key markets, [there’s] no end to the threat of looming regulation and [there are] adverse demand shocks along the supply chain.
Encompassing chipmakers, cloud computers and information-sharing gatekeepers, the world’s largest technology companies have their guard up, and the largest players are either reaping the benefits of necessary pivots or watching their income statements suffer.’
One of the most interesting aspects to come out of the report is the geographical location of the world’s tech behemoths. When it was first published 17 years ago, the list was heavily dominated by US companies and while they remain at the top, the Far East’s ‘Tiger Economy’ is becoming far more visible:
US – 65 companies in the top 2000
China – 20
Taiwan – 17
Japan – 14
South Korea – 6
The Biggest Tech Companies In The World
Here it is, the list of the world’s 10 biggest tech companies (figures for 2018-19).
1. Apple Inc – USA (6th on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $961.3 billion (£789.5 billion)
Sales – $261.7 billion (£214.9 billion)
Assets – $373.7 billion (£306.9 billion
Profits – $59.4 billion (£48.8 billion)
Founded – 1976
CEO – Tim Cook
Employees – 132,000
2. Samsung Electronics – South Korea (13th on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $272.4 billion (£223.7 billion)
Sales – $221.5 billion (£181.9 billion)
Assets – $304.1 billion (£249.7 billion)
Profits – $39.9 billion (£32.7 billion)
Founded – 1969
CEO – Hyun-Suk Kim
Employees – 308,800
3. Microsoft – USA (16th on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $946.5 billion (£777.4 billion)
Sales – $118.2 billion (£97.1 billion)
Assets – $258.9 billion (£212.6 billion)
Profits – $33.5 billion (£27.5 billion)
Founded – 1985
CEO – Satya Nadella
Employees – 131,000
4. Alphabet – USA (17th on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $863.2 billion (£709.0 billion)
Sales – $137.0 billion (£112.5 billion)
Assets – $206.9 billion (£170.0 billion)
Profits – $30.7 billion (£25.2 billion)
Founded – 2015
CEO – Larry Page
Employees – 98,800
5. Intel – USA (44th on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $263.1 billion (£216.1 billion)
Sales – $70.8 billion (£58.1 billion)
Assets – $128.0 billion (£105.1 billion)
Profits – $21.1 billion (£17.3 billion)
Founded – 1968
CEO – Robert Swan
Employees – 107,400
6. IBM – USA (60th on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $124.9 billion (£102.6 billion)
Sales – $78.7 billion (£64.6 billion)
Assets – $130.9 billion (£107.5 billion)
Profits – $8.6 billion (£7.0 billion)
Founded – 1911
CEO – Virginia M. Rometty
Employees – 381,100
7. Facebook – USA (63rd on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $512.0 billion (£420.5 billion)
Sales – $55.8 billion (£45.8 billion)
Assets – $97.3 billion (£79.9 billion)
Profits – $22.1 billion (£18.1 billion)
Founded – 2004
CEO – Mark Zuckerberg
Employees – 35,600
8. Cisco Systems – USA (=74th on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $248.3 billion (£203.9 billion)
Sales – $50.8 billion (£41.7 billion)
Assets – $102.5 billion (£84.1 billion)
Profits – $12.9 billion (£10.6 billion)
Founded – 1984
CEO – Chuck Robbins
Employees – 74,200
9. Tencent Holdings – China (=74th on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $472.1 billion (£387.7 billion)
Sales – $47.2 billion (£38.7 billion)
Assets – $105.4 billion (£86.5 billion)
Profits – $11.9 billion (£9.7 billion)
Founded – 1998
CEO – Hua Ma
Employees – 54,300
10. Oracle – USA (92nd on the overall top 2000 list)
Market Cap – $186.3 billion (£153.0 billion)
Sales – $39.6 billion (£32.5 billion)
Assets – $109.4 billion (£89.8 billion)
Profits – $10.8 billion (£8.8 billion)
Founded – 1984
CEO – Mark Hurd
Employees – 2,500
So there we have it, the ten biggest tech companies in the world and the signs are that they’re only going to get bigger.
Koncise Solutions on the other hand aren’t as big as these guys but we have the knowledge, skillset and passion to plug you into world-class cloud platforms which will make you way more secure, way more productive, way more efficient and way more profitable.
And isn’t that what you really want?
Wherever you’re off to, have a lovely time and we’ll be back in a couple of weeks after our own hard-earned rest!
Contact us today on info@koncisesolutions.com or call 020 7078 0789 and we’ll talk cloud security, cutting-edge IT solutions or what’s better, the sea or the swimming pool. Whatever you want.
Koncise Solutions
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