Google vs. Apple vs. Exxon: A Reminder of Scale
Exxon's latest financials came in today, and after the last couple weeks of following tech companies' earnings reports, they were a not-so-subtle reminder of the relative scale of the two industries. Here I took the last quarter for each company (Apple, Google, Exxon) and plotted its revenue and net profit.
The margins of the oil business are obviously lower, but look at Exxon's revenue number. Around the world, people handed Exxon nearly $100 billion dollars in a single three-month period. Apple would have to sell 184 million of the cheapest iPad to hit Exxon's number.
(Side note: Excel 2008 is driving me nuts. Why did they make it so hard to label the axes? Why do attempts to make spreadsheet software easier to work with always result in greater complexity?)
The margins of the oil business are obviously lower, but look at Exxon's revenue number. Around the world, people handed Exxon nearly $100 billion dollars in a single three-month period. Apple would have to sell 184 million of the cheapest iPad to hit Exxon's number.
(Side note: Excel 2008 is driving me nuts. Why did they make it so hard to label the axes? Why do attempts to make spreadsheet software easier to work with always result in greater complexity?)