Citi, Goldman Sachs among least reputed US cos

As many as nine companies which suffered the brunt of the economic crisis and were bailed out by the government -- including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs -- are among the least reputed companies in the US, a study said.

According to the 2009 Harris Interactive RQ Study, which measures the reputations of the 60 most visible companies in the US, nine of the 10 lowest ranked companies were recipients of funds from the government bailout package. Meanwhile, billionaire Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway has been voted as the most reputed company in the US and is closely followed by Johnson & Johnson, the study revealed.

Others among the top 10 reputed companies are Google (3), 3M Company (4), SC Johnson (5), Intel Corporation (6), Microsoft (7), The Coca-Cola Company (8), amazon.com (9) and General Mills (10).

"In last year's study, we saw companies that provided value and a sense of comfort getting strong overall reputation ratings. This year, we see overall corporate governance, performance and leadership driving positive reputation perceptions," Harris Interactive Senior Vice-President Robert Fronk said.

Looking at the bottom of the rankings, the nine lowest ranking companies have all recently received government bailout money or remain government supported. It includes a newcomer to the list, Goldman Sachs, who joins the list with an RQ score of 51.36. The bottom 10 companies on this year's list in order of ranking are: Delta Airlines (51), Bank of America (52), JP Morgan Chase (53), General Motors (54), Chrysler (55), Goldman Sachs (56), Citigroup (57), Fannie Mae (58), AIG (59) and Freddie Mac (60).

The study stated that after hitting rock bottom during the height of the economic crisis in 2008, the American public's perception of the reputation of corporates seems to be bouncing back. The percentage of Americans who see the state of reputation as "not good" or "terrible" decreased to 81 per cent in 2009 from 88 per cent in 2008.

Moreover, there was a 50 per cent rise in the number of Americans who said that the state of reputation is "good," moving to 18 per cent in 2009 from 12 per cent in 2008, which was the first positive improvement in four years.