For some reason, everyone thinks that big companies are all based in New York or Silicon Valley, but Dallas has a lot more corporate headquarters than many people realize. I pulled the 2020 Fortune 500 list to see what are the biggest companies headquartered in Dallas. I count more than just Dallas proper since most people are willing to commute around the metroplex.
#5 American Airlines Group (Fort Worth, TX)
Headquartered in Fort Worth, American Airlines was number 70 on the overall Fortune 500 list in 2020. This is a 2 spot slip from 2019’s ranking and moves American behind Delta as the leading airline. 2019 was an uneven year for American marked by labor disputes and the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX airplanes.
The Boeing situation caused the airline to cancel 10,000 flights in the fourth quarter of 2019 alone. Just as things started to look up, 2020 had other plans for the airline industry. After losing $2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2020 and accepting government aid, American still has to shrink its passenger fleet and layoff employees.
The events of 2020 were definitely not kind to anyone in the travel industry and American was not exempt at all. But at least they are cleaning the planes now, so that’s something? Right?
#4 Energy Transfer
Energy Transfer is number 59 on the overall 2020 Fortune 500 list. The company was formed in 1996 and became publicly traded in 2004. According to their website, their core operations include transportation, storage, and terminating for natural gas, crude oil, NGLs, refined products and liquid natural gas. So, to put it simply, it’s an oil & gas company.
Energy Transfer’s profits shot up 112% last year, and the company delivered huge dividends in 2019 and early 2020. I hope they enjoyed the good times while they lasted since 2020 has seen a huge drop in demand for oil & gas and energy services.
#3 AT&T
AT&T is number 9 on the overall Fortune 500 list. American Telephone & Telegraph is not just the telephone company, but a media conglomerate who brought us the confusing roll out of HBOMax this year. But hey, we got another streaming service to pay for to get to watch things that used to be available on Netflix, so there’s that.
Revenue in 2019 increased 6% but profits dropped 28% because of merger costs, pension charges, and changes in the value of some assets, and some other stuff – including the expensive 5G rollout.
I’m sure conspiracy theorists probably blame AT&T for the events of 2020 since they think 5G is the culprit of the pandemic in the first place.
#2 McKesson (Irving, TX)
Just one spot above AT&T on the overall list is McKesson, coming in at #8. The company is the nation’s largest drug distributor and grew revenue last year through more sales, increased prices, and acquisitions. You know, the usual.
They did see some losses last year with costs related to opioid-related litigation. McKesson, along will many other drug dealers (I mean manufacturers) are fighting thousands of lawsuits over their alleged role in the nation’s opioid epidemic.
In February 2020, 21 states rejected a proposed $18 billion settlement with McKesson and the U.S.’s two other largest drug wholesalers. At least with the other events of 2020, no one is talking about the opioid crisis anymore.
#1 ExxonMobil (Irving, TX)
ExxonMobil, based in Irving, is America’s largest publicly traded oil company. This #3 company on the overall Fortune list faced a challenging 2019. CEO Darren Woods pinned the problem squarely on low oil prices. The company earned $14.3 billion (which is a lot of money) but that was a 31% drop in profits year-on-year, causing their debt levels to rise by 24%. My advice? They should stop buying lattes learn to live within their means to stay out of debt.
The oil crash in early 2020 caused further headaches: for Q1, Exxon announced its first quarterly loss in more than three decades. But honestly, most companies have had a rough go at it in 2020 and these Dallas based companies are no different.
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