# What's the biggest (US) company you've never heard of? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 25, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613 "2014-11-25T17:26:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/1 "2014-11-25T17:26:18Z")
So, [here](http://www.zyxware.com/articles/4344/list-of-fortune-500-companies-and-their-websites) is a handy list of the Fortune 500, with their websites. For no real reason, I was wondering about big companies that a lot of people haven’t heard of. As you look down that list, what’s the first company that makes you go, “what do _they_ do?” For me, it’s #10, Valero Energy. I mean, I used my keen power of deduction to decide that they were probably in the oil and gas industry, but I had never heard of them before. $137B in revenue, 22K employees. I had no idea they existed. There’s no point to this. I’m just bored. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/2 "2014-11-25T17:32:12Z")
McKesson was the first one for me. ---
**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/3 "2014-11-25T17:33:56Z")
Valero (10) was the first one I wasn’t 100% positive I knew what they did. I’ve heard of them but couldn’t place them. I’d never heard of Cardinal Health (22). ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/4 "2014-11-25T17:34:11Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > So, [here](http://www.zyxware.com/articles/4344/list-of-fortune-500-companies-and-their-websites) is a handy list of the Fortune 500, with their websites. For no real reason, I was wondering about big companies that a lot of people haven’t heard of. As you look down that list, what’s the first company that makes you go, “what do _they_ do?” > > For me, it’s #10, Valero Energy. I mean, I used my keen power of deduction to decide that they were probably in the oil and gas industry, but I had never heard of them before. $137B in revenue, 22K employees. I had no idea they existed. > > There’s no point to this. I’m just bored. Number fifteen, McKesson, was the first one I didn’t immediately recognize. Number 22 was the next, then 25, then 28, 38, 54, then I got bored too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/5 "2014-11-25T17:34:57Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > … > For me, it’s #10, Valero Energy. I mean, I used my keen power of deduction to decide that they were probably in the oil and gas industry, but I had never heard of them before. $137B in revenue, 22K employees. I had no idea they existed. > > There’s no point to this. I’m just bored. For me, it was #28, AmerisourceBergen. I suspected that they might be a HR outsourcing firm, but it turns out that they seem to be a generic healthcare conglomerate. Valero has gas stations in many areas, including much of Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/6 "2014-11-25T17:35:11Z")
Phillips 66. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/7 "2014-11-25T17:41:13Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Phillips 66. Interesting. What part of the country do you live in (assuming you’re in the US)? Phillips seems to have gas stations in a lot of the US. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/8 "2014-11-25T17:58:32Z")
McKesson. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/9 "2014-11-25T18:18:01Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Phillips 66. Same here, but I’m not in the US. A surprise: IBM has greater revenues than Microsoft. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/10 "2014-11-25T18:20:26Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > McKesson was the first one for me. Me, too. Valero has a lot of gas stations around here, but two years ago (before we moved) I wouldn’t have known them. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/11 "2014-11-25T18:24:37Z")
McKesson. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/12 "2014-11-25T18:27:18Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Interesting. What part of the country do you live in (assuming you’re in the US)? Phillips seems to have gas stations in a lot of the US. I think Phillips 66 is more of a Midwest and west coast thing - I can’t recall ever seeing a Phillips 66 station east of Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/13 "2014-11-25T18:29:31Z")
Phillips66. I lived in California for 20+ years and never encountered them. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/14 "2014-11-25T18:47:59Z")
#62, CHS Inc. But I’ve worked with business schools/students in several regions of the country, so that has expanded the number of them I could easily point to what they do. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/15 "2014-11-25T18:58:28Z")
Berkshire Hathaway, never heard of them, but then I am in the UK so that maybe isn’t surprising. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/16 "2014-11-25T19:06:28Z")
McKesson for me. I’ve seen Valero gas stations as well. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/17 "2014-11-25T19:06:59Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Berkshire Hathaway, never heard of them, but then I am in the UK so that maybe isn’t surprising. You’ve probably heard of [Warren Buffett,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett) its chair/CEO. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/18 "2014-11-25T19:09:53Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Berkshire Hathaway, never heard of them, but then I am in the UK so that maybe isn’t surprising. Never heard of them either, here in the US. Warren Buffett seems to be involved in the company in some way, given the web page listed. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/19 "2014-11-25T19:25:36Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > McKesson. I only know them because we sued them a few years back. Otherwise, I would draw a blank too. And even after that, I had no idea they were that big. For me it’s Cardinal Health ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613/20 "2014-11-25T19:39:26Z")
I’d heard of Berkshire Hathaway, but wasn’t sure what they did. McKesson is the first one I’d never heard of. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-us-company-youve-never-heard-of/705613.md?page=2)