The news of the fall of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers & Merrill Lynch was a shock to everyone. Then there was the news flash that AIG was next in line for collapse. It’s almost impossible to imagine that these are some of the massive giants from Fortune 500 that are amongst the biggest buyers for just about everything b2b businesses have to offer. Would anyone have even suspected a year ago that it was even remotely possible that some of these names would not even feature anywhere on the Fortune 500 list the next time its published?

We were certainly taken by surprise. As part of maintaining an up to date database of technology decision maker business contacts in the Fortune 500 companies to provide technology companies with business to business leads, we keep an eye on the Fortune 500 rankings to note changes in rankings and update new companies that have made it to the list. While there are updates from the past few years, this year seems to be one where we can expect to see some surprising changes in the rankings. With the domino effect of the crisis on the global economy we can definitely expect to see some names leave the Fortune 500 list while other large companies who will be hard hit will slip down the ranks possibly by several places and be replaced by others. Needless to say the Fortune 500 list may never look the same as we remember it. Only time will tell.