List Shows Decline, but Black Firms Grow

The aggregate value of Black Enterprise magazine’s listing of the top black-owned businesses fell last year for the first time, from 1996’s record high of $14.1 billion to $13.19 billion in 1997. That’s due to the largest company on the list--TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc.--losing revenue after selling off parts of the company. Continuing the trend, the bottom 99 companies exceeded 1996’s bottom 99 in total sales. Editors of the magazine recently led strategy seminars for black entrepreneurs and emphasized the lessons learned from the wave of mergers sweeping the banking, auto and other industries. Executive Editor Alfred A. Edmond Jr. said, “What you are really looking at . . . is a list in transition.”