Surveying the top.

B.E. compiles its annual list of the largest black-owned firms

Each year, BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine's list of the largest black-owned companies casts the achievements of the nation's most successful African American business owners into the spotlight. In 2000, as the magazine celebrates its 30th anniversary, it will unveil its 28th BE 100s list.

"We have seen a new generation of entrepreneurs emerge. We call them the new power generation," says Earl G. Graves Jr., president of BLACK ENTERPRISE. "As a result, we will continue to see black business grow through mergers and acquisitions and powerful strategic alliances, as demonstrated by Don Coleman Advertising joining forces with True North Communications, and the Burrell Communications Group with Publicis. Others will generate wealth and new reservoirs of capital as evidenced by the recent sell off of TLC Beatrice."

Before its liquidation, TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc. accounted for $1.4 billion of the $13.19 billion in total revenues of the BE 100s. This year, although TLC reported 1998 revenues of only $322 million, dropping to the No. 3 spot on the BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE 100 LIST, the BE 100s recorded total revenues of more than $14 billion.

"Each year, as the number of companies eligible to be on the list has grown, so has the number of categories," says Vanessa Exhem, operations manager of Black Enterprise Unlimited, who spearheads the BE 100s program. In the past decade alone, the revenue threshold for the top 100 industrial/service firms has increased from $5.5 million in 1988 to $15 million five years ago to $24 million in 1998. "We want to identify as many businesses as possible with the potential to be a BE 100s company," adds Exhem.

Currently, there are six categories: industrial/service, auto dealer, advertising agencies, banks, investment banks and insurance companies. As BE continues to identify qualified firms, business owners interested in determining their eligibility are encouraged to contact the magazine via e-mail at [e-mail].