Yesterday I linked to two recent earnings releases, and asked the question – Who’s bigger?

If you answered “it depends”, you were correct.  It is not possible to answer this question without knowing the basis of comparison.

Should the size of an enterprise be based on reveneues?  How about profits?  Total assets?  Number of employees?  

In the first quarter of 2008, GM recorded $42.7 billion (with a “b”) in revenues.  Salesforce.com recognized only $248 million in their first quarter.  GM has 266,000 employees worldwide.  Salesforce.com is still under 3,000.  GM has nearly $149 billion in total assets.  Salesforce, on the other hand, has only $1.1 billion.*

GM is clearly the larger company, right?

But what about profitability?  GM has been posting recent losses, including a $3.3 billion first quarter loss.  Salesforce.com posted $18.4 million in income in their first quarter.*

So, Salesforce.com is the winner, right?

But haven’t I missed another important measure?

* Data sourced from either the earnings releases or annual SEC filings.