Exxon Mobile The Closeset Thing To the only thing to a trillion dollars?

Question

is exxon mobile the closeest thing to sell for a trillion dollars and if it is are there anything that will sell a trillion dollars

Answer 1

Exxon is the most valuable company in the world, in terms of market cap. GE was the largest before Exxon outpaced it last year. As of today, Exxon (XOM) is valued at $436,270,102,400, while General Electric is valued at $369,473,018,610. Other large companies include Microsoft (MSFT; $286G), Google (GOOG; $150G), Citigroup (C; $250G), the Bank of America (BAC; $245G), and Procter & Gamble (PG; $200G).

Wal-Mart, well-known as the first company (in terms of gross revenue) on the Fortune 500, has a market cap of only around $4 billion.


As for things valued around there:
* The US national debt is $8.6T, so all US government bonds are worth that amount.
* The US SDI "Star Wars" anti-missile system cost around $1 trillion over 20 years, depending on who's counting.
* Citigroup has about $1.1 trillion in assets.
* Wal-Mart is projected to have around $1 trillion in yearly sales in the next 8 years.

Answer 2

Yes and no. The funny thing about market capitalization is that it measures "what the company is worth if you sold it today at its last price entirely."

The problem is that if you even tried to sell 1000 shares of XOM you would cut its price by $1-$1.50 per share. If you owned 25% of the company its price would be cut, on average at least 12.5%. For 100% my guess is you would see an even larger cut plus you would have to pay market makers to facillitate the large trade.

So, XOM's market cap is only worth that if 100 shares sell and no more.

Liquidity is important and anyone who wants to own it already owns it. It is most valuable to its existing shareholders or they would not be existing shareholders. To actually accomplish the idea of the market cap, you have to find a new group willing to hold it at 100%. Since the group valuing it most already holds it, you have to cut the price until you find enough buyers willing to hold it, who are not the existing owners.

Just a note, that is why bubbles occur. People hold something that someone else wants badly but they value it at the current price and already hold it. So in order for people to give it up, other people must raise the price so they can have it. If the group wanting to dislodge existing shareholders is large enough, the price will rise dramatically. It will likely rise beyond the point anyone wants to hold it, except the existing shareholders and the price begins plummiting.