Do we have any AAAs? Options

[WeaverMount]

So extraterriorial holdings and CC seats aside, do you think there are RL corporations with the clout and scale of AAAs in the fiction?

[Muspellsheimr]

Microsoft
Various Oil Corporations
Sony (Maybe)

[Method]

Mitsubishi.

[Kyoto Kid]

...Proctor & Gamble.

[ludomastro]

AA at least, and perhaps AAA one day: Wal-Mart

[WeaverMount]

anyone know how far wall mark has com with it's banking ambitions?

[Cheops]

Monsanto
General Electric

[Vertaxis]

General Electric
Exxon/Mobil
Krupp
Google?
Proctor & Gamble
Bayer
Mitsubishi
Hyundai
General Motors
DeBeers
Seimens
IBM

[Cardul]

DeBeers only influences diamonds. So, it is not really a AAA, but it is more likely a AA, since it has complete control over the global diamond market.

[Aaron]

I am unconvinced that you can really call a company AAA unless it has some form of demonstrable de jure (or even de facto) extraterritorial status.

[Adarael]

Samsung, while in South Korea.
Marginally: Komatsu, Mistubishi, Mitsui.
Again, oil companies, maybe.

That's about it. People say Microsoft, but that's bull. Microsoft has nowhere near the clout or employee numbers to be considered a AAA.

[ludomastro]

anyone know how far wall mark has com with it's banking ambitions?

Last I heard, Walley-world had retracted their bid for bank status due to huge public protest. Let the public shift their attention elsewhere though and ...

[WeaverMount]

Emphasis mine

That's about it. People say Microsoft, but that's bull. Microsoft has nowhere near the clout or employee numbers to be considered a AAA.

I your right. More specifically They don't have the breadth of an AAA. If they had their level of Clout in a another sector or two though...

[Crusher Bob]

GE is probably the only crop to qualify for AAA status today, as just about all of the other very large corps are only into a few things. Take a look at GE history list since 2000 (from Wikipedia):

2000 Montgomery Ward folded by GE Capital due to declining sales.
2001 General Electric and Honeywell agree to merge. The merger is blocked by European Union M&A chief Mario Monti.
2001 NBC acquires Telemundo, one of the leading Spanish language television networks.
2003 GE Healthcare acquires Instrumentarium.
2003 GE Capital acquires Transamerica Finance from AEGON, who retained the rest of Transamerica Corporation.
2004 NBC acquires the entertainment assets of Vivendi Universal, excluding Universal Music. This forms NBC Universal, of which General Electric owns 80%.
2004 GE Healthcare acquires Amersham plc.
2004 GE Capital acquires Dillard's credit card unit for US$1.25 billion.
2004 GE sells 60% stake in GE Capital International Services (GECIS) to private equity companies, Oak Hill Capital Partners and General Atlantic, for $500 million.
2004 Genworth Financial formed from General Electric's life and mortgage insurance assets.
2004 GE Security acquires InVision Technologies, a leading manufacturer of airport security equipment.
2005 GE Commercial Finance acquires the financial assets of Bombardier, a Canadian aircraft manufacturer for US$1.4 billion.[2]
2006 GE Healthcare acquires IDX Systems, a medical software firm, for US$1.2 billion.
2006 GE Advanced Materials division is sold to Apollo Management, L.P. for US$3.8 billion.
2006 GE Water & Process Technologies acquires Zenon Environmental Systems for $758 million.
2007 GE-Aviation acquires Smiths Aerospace for £2.4 billion.
2007 GE Oil & Gas acquires Vetco Gray for US$1.9 billion.
2007 GE Plastics is sold to SABIC for US$11.7 billion.

Mitsubishi probably also qualifies, since they have their tentacles in many different industries as well.

[Cthulhudreams]

The only companies that behave like AAA megacorps are the big resource companies in russia - which have private armies etc, though the government could stomp on them at any time. Stuff like gazprom.

But realistically any modern corp is way to dinky to measure up to the AAA juggernauts.

[Ryu]

It is not really desireable to be a Triple-A in the first place. Your revenue is bound to be average if you do everything. Unless you try to be technology leader in everything. In that case you go bankrupt.

[Cthulhudreams]

I suspect that mega corps in SR verse have to function like GE today. Loose conglomerates where the core product of 'Ares' is really leadership talent which it can then farm out to all the subsidiaries.

[Leofski]

Take the top ten from here. All reasonable selections

Here

HSBC pratically runs a number of monetary systems, acting as lender of last resort in a number of areas, in addition to producing the majority of notes used in Hong Kong, and the other 2 banks in the top ten are in similar positions. The three oil and gas companies will have some degree of extraterrititoriality in a number of locations. The other four are either heavily diversified, such as GE or in other fields that permit for fairly stable long run growth.

[It trolls!]

When thinking about nowadays megacorps, apart from the usual suspects, I always think of Kraft/Masterfoods and Nestlé.
Their reach stretches out into anything loosely food-related.
On the IT front, I find Google has become similarly dangerous to what people always say of Microsoft. We're all relying on Google for our information gathering and by that, we're easily diverted by what information Google wants to give us. Also there's the saying in the industry that any developer hired by Google "just vanishes" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[hermit]

Nestlé, Samsung, GE, Gazprom (mainly because it has it's own standing army).

[JeffSz]

When thinking about nowadays megacorps, apart from the usual suspects, I always think of Kraft/Masterfoods and Nestlé.
Their reach stretches out into anything loosely food-related.
On the IT front, I find Google has become similarly dangerous to what people always say of Microsoft. We're all relying on Google for our information gathering and by that, we're easily diverted by what information Google wants to give us. Also there's the saying in the industry that any developer hired by Google "just vanishes" ;)

I would totally wageslave myself to Google and "vanish" if given the chance.

[Snow_Fox]

Every one is focusing on the extraterritoriality issue but A real tripple AAA is not just powerful in it'sd field- Microsoft, GM, Beoing, The soviet Gas business

but dominant in multiple fields. A power broker in unrelated industries that can afford to take a big hit and keep rolling, unable to be bought out.

anyone know how far wall mark has com with it's banking ambitions?

Not very far, there was opposition in a lot of quarters. they were rescheduling it and were making some head way but the current banking disaster, caused in part by a loosening of regulaitions in the last few years, is going to block this pretty extensivley. The loop holes Walmart wanted to slip through will be closing up again once the current administration is out. Neither potential condidate is gonig to let them stand.

Sony, Fuji amd GE are the only ones I can think of that ocme close. Electronics, heavy industry and entertainment.

[Lofwyr's mas...]

News Corp. I mean, they're a media company, but they're in every kind of media all over the world, from publishing to movies to the Internet. It's maybe not broad enough to be a AAA, but it gives them the requisite clout, since they control information as well as entertainment - they've got their paws into basically any kind of input we get that isn't face-to-face.

[Fortune]

Duracell is my favorite AAA.

[Kyoto Kid]

...take -2 Karma pun damage... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)