Capital is the fuel that makes it possible for private companies to go public, or public companies to withdraw into private status. No surprise, the turnover between public and private companies slowed to a crawl over the last year. Renaissance Capital reports that during the latest 12 months only three private companies with revenues over $1 billion had public offerings, down from 15 over the same period a year earlier. Large companies that put public offerings on hold include AMC Entertainment, Safety-Keen and NewPage Holding. On the other side, Alliance Data Systems and PennNational Gaming canceled plans to go private.
Several companies on last year's list dropped off because another company acquired them, or they fell below our $1 billion in revenues cutoff, like Columbia Forest Products and Genmar Holdings.
In Pictures: America's Largest Private Companies
In Pictures: Private Companies With The Most Employees
The meltdown on Wall Street was not the only reason why most large companies maintained their private status. Many of these businesses enjoy a degree of freedom from meeting quarterly earnings expectations, compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley rules and other financial reporting requirements. (Private companies that have publicly traded debt must file financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.)
Corporations such as Koch Industries and Cargill have maintained their private status since long before Forbes published its inaugural private company list in 1985. In contrast, casino operator Harrah's Entertainment went private in January of 2008, and Goodman Manufacturing, an air conditioning and heating products manufacturer, rejoined the private company list this year, after a nearly three-year stint as a public company.
In Pictures: America's Largest Private Companies: Newcomers
In Pictures: America's Largest Private Companies--Drop-Offs
In aggregate, the 441 companies that made this year's roster of large private companies employ 6.2 million people and account for $1.8 trillion in revenues for goods and services provided. Over the last 10 years, companies with revenues of at least $1 billion that appeared on Forbes' annual list of America's Largest Private Companies saw average annual revenue gains of 11.4%, vs. 6.4% for the constituents of the S&P 500 during the same period.
In addition to our $1 billion revenue requirement, the companies on our list have either too few shareholders to be required to file financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or have shares whose ownership is restricted to some group, such as family members or employees. We exclude foreign companies, companies that don't pay income taxes (like Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority), mutually owned companies (example: State Farm), cooperatives (example: Central Grocers), companies with fewer than 100 employees, and companies that are 50% or more owned by another public or private company. We also leave out companies whose primary business is auto dealerships or real estate investment and/or management.
In Pictures: Private Companies That Want To Go Public
In Pictures: Private Companies And The Forbes 400
In Video: Blue Jeans And Billions
Wherever possible, our revenue figures for each company exclude sales of publicly traded subsidiaries. For example, our $14.5 billion revenue estimate for Cox Enterprises excludes $445 million in revenues for its 99% owned and publicly traded subsidiary Cox Radio (nyse: CXR - news - people ).
Our data sources include voluntary disclosure by companies, Securities and Exchange Commission and regulatory filings, and estimates from Forbes researchers and outside sources.