America's Largest Private Companies 2017

In 2017, a total of 225 firms make it onto our 33rd annual ranking of America’s largest private companies. Taken as a group, these companies have combined revenues of $1.57 trillion, down 3% from last year, and employ 4.7 million people, up from 4.5 million in 2016. The top of the 2017 is full of familiar faces. Cargill and Koch Industries have a lock on the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. Cargill sits at top of the list for the 10th consecutive year. Revenues grew a modest 2% in 2017 to $109.7 billion. Cargill has missed the No. 1 rank only twice since the first private companies list was published in 1985. Koch Industries comes it at No. 2. Revenues for this year’s list don’t reflect the acquisition of Guardian Industries (ranked No. 67 last year’s private companies list.) Koch Industries acquired the Michigan-based glass company in February 2017. Advertisement   Top 25 Private Companies 2017 25 images Rounding out the top 5 are grocery chain Albertsons (No. 3) and two of the three accounting firms on the list. Deloitte is ranked fourth and PricewaterhouseCoopers is fifth. Albertsons filed for an IPO in 2015, a few months after it completed its acquisition of publicly-traded Safeway, but has put those plans on hold. Grads of LifeVoiceDrive vs Degree: Finding My Pathway To Success Mars jumps up one to No. 6. The Virginia-based company, best known for its candy business, announced in January that it would acquire animal hospital chain VCA in a deal worth $9.1 billion. When this deal is complete, the company’s pet care business will make up over 50% of revenues. Mars owns pet brands such as Pedigree, Wiskas and Royal Canin. Advertisement  #Dell is the highest ranked company to drop off the list. Last year the Texas-based computer company was ranked fourth. Dell completed its merger with #EMC Corporation in September 2016 and began trading as #DellTechnologies. Along with Dell, there are eight other companies from the 2016 list that didn’t qualify this year. Trucking company Schneider National went public via an initial public offering in April 2017. International Data Group, the media company behind technology magazines such as PCWolrd and MacWorld, was bought by a Chinese conglomerate earlier this year. Companies don’t qualify for the list for a few reasons; revenues drop below $2 billion, the company is no longer private or foreign ownership. Uber debuts on the list at No. 52, one of 11 newcomers to the list. It’s the first tech unicorn to rank on our private company list. Facebook was a contender for this list back in 2010 but its revenues didn’t cross the $2 billion threshold while it was still a private company. The ride-sharing company’s potential IPO seems uncertain considering the recent scandals. CEO Travis Kalanick announced in June that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence. In addition to Uber, notable newcomers include home security company ADT (No. 114) and restaurant chain Red Lobster (No. 183).
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andreamurphy/2017/08/09/americas-largest-private-companies-2/?c=0&s=trending#621bb4d21365