Tech companies take a licking Drugmaker McKesson sees biggest sales gains
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Giants in computer hardware and software stand beside leaders in oil, drug distribution, electricity, groceries and banking to top The Chronicle 200’s list of the biggest breadwinners in 2001. No other Bay Area company pulled in even half as much in sales as global powerhouse ChevronTexaco Corp., whose 2001 revenue was $104.4 billion — enough to rank it eighth by revenue on the Fortune 500 and second by revenue among U.S. oil companies, behind Exxon Mobil of Irving, Texas. Altogether for companies on The Chronicle 200, revenue declined 6.6 percent from the previous year. The worst drop-off hit the region’s largest technology companies, not surprisingly. As a sector, they lost 17.2 percent in sales. Meanwhile, sales in the health care sector soared 21.8 percent overall, followed closely by a 19.4 percent rise in sales among noncyclical consumer businesses. ChevronTexaco topped the revenue list despite a 12 percent sales decline for the year, according to the combined company’s restated annual revenue for the year ended in December. Because companies’ fiscal years vary, 2001 revenue for this report was calculated using the four quarters ended close to Dec. 31. When Chevron and Texaco, which was based in White Plains, N.Y., merged in October, executives predicted the union would save $1.8 billion annually, before taxes, by 2003. Chevron’s $39 billion takeover of Texaco led to the elimination of 4,500 jobs, and ChevronTexaco plans to complete the transfer of its corporate headquarters from San Francisco to San Ramon by year’s end. Meanwhile, ChevronTexaco reported first-quarter 2002 profit down 70 percent from the same period last year, reflecting falling crude oil prices. The decline was not as great as Wall Street analysts had projected. McKesson Corp., which ranked second in sales among Chronicle 200 companies, pulled in more than $48 billion in revenue, enabling the 168-year-old San Francisco company to enjoy the Bay Area’s loftiest one-year revenue gain in dollars. McKesson is North America’s No. 1 distributor of pharmaceuticals and health care products. For the 12 months ended in December, McKesson’s revenue rose$8.5 billion, a 21.5 percent leap from the year before, on the strength of its core drug-distribution business and its health care technology, surgical products and medical products divisions. McKesson’s acquisitions have led to skyrocketing revenue during the past five years, but the company also has been struggling to mend damage done by a problematic $14 billion merger in 1999 with medical softwaremaker HBO and Co. In that merger, McKesson sought to balance its low-margin drug trade with high-margin medical software, but a scandal over HBOC’s books sank McKesson shares into a hole they have been digging out of ever since. More : sfgate.com |