LARGEST COMPANIES...RICHEST CITIES

What are the largest companies in the world? Nine of the top ten are from the USA. We have long been the greatest.

Note that #5 shows Google in parentheses next to Alphabet, and #7 has Facebook as part of Meta. What happened?

Google, as you know reinvented the way the world accesses information. Why restructure?

Without much warning in 2015, Google renamed itself Alphabet.

This allowed the parent, Alphabet, to expand into domains outside of internet search and advertising.
Google now runs a lesser risk of antitrust violations.

You might get confused by GOOG and GOOGL, stock ticker symbols of Alphabet. I won't try to explain it, but you can click here for details.

52-year old Sundar Pichai (originally, Pichai Sundararajan) is the CEO of Alphabet, while founders Larry Page (52) and Sergey Brin (53) no longer are involved in daily operations. Sundar's compensation last year was $10.72 million.

Note that Alphabet is the 5th largest company in market cap. It is the 3rd largest in technology company in annual revenues, to Amazon and Apple. But #11 in the world in annual revenues.

In revenues, the USA is still terrific, but not great, for we rank #1 with Walmart and #2 Amazon, plus #7-#11. Actually, Jeff Bezos earlier this year Instagrammed this out.
Interestingly enough, Alphabet ranks #2 with a profit last year of $100 million to Saudi Aramco's $106 million. Six American companies ranked in the top ten.
Incidentally, Google dominates its field, with 91% of all searches.

Regarding Facebook, it also rebranded itself, in 2021, to broaden its social media capabilities and focus on the metaverse, by similarly creating Meta as the parent company.

Thus Meta is a word-play on METAverse.

What is a metaverse? It is a virtual, immersive world where people can interact using virtual and augmented reality.
Meta allows the company to move from a social media focus to the next generation of technology platforms, while distancing itself from concerns about privacy and misinformation.

Meta diversified its portfolio by acquiring Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus VR.
Note that companies in general re-brand itself following mergers and restructuring. As for example, in 1996, Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz merged too form Novartis. To insulate itself from brand image suffering, Phillip Morris and Kraft rebranded themselves as Altria.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook/Meta, has linked the new brand name to his strategic plan to create a metaverse — a virtual world in which consumers spend increasing parts of their lives, based on AI and virtual reality (VR) technology. This is an important new phase in the digital world.

Mark Zuckerberg's primary residence is a compound in Palo Alto, California, which he assembled through strategic purchases of neighboring properties. He also owns a sprawling estate in Hawaii, specifically on Kauai, and a lakefront compound in Lake Tahoe. Additionally, he recently purchased a large mansion (right) in Washington, D.C.. Read about his $300 million property portfolio. $187million for 1400 acres on Kauai, plus another $100 million in construction costs (below). His move to DC joins other billionaires linking to President Donald Trump, with a $23 million mansion (above), 15,400 square feet in the exclusive Massachusetts Avenue Heights neighborhood.

Want more information? Read the details here.

Finally, the wealthiest cities in the world. Our travels this past year have included the top three. And, our coming winter odyssey will include a cruise that starts in #2 Tokyo, ends in #3 Singapore, and on another ship from there, will take us to #8 Hong Kong.

#1 is New York City.

384,500 millionaires. Growth: 45%.
66 billionaires.

#2 is The Bay Area of San Francisco.

342,000 millionaires. Growth: 98%.
82 billionaires.

#3 is Tokyo.

292,300 millionaires. Growth: 4%.
18 billionaires.

#4 is Singapore.

242,400 millionaires. Growth: 62%.
30 billionaires.

#5 is Los Angeles.

220,600 millionaires. Growth: 35%.
45 billionaires.

#6 London, #7 Paris, #8 Hong Kong, #9 Sydney and #10 Chicago.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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