Big business

Big business is usually used as a pejorative reference to the significant economic and political power which large and powerful corporations specially multinational corporations, are capable of wielding. The term "Big Business" first came into use in a symbolic sense subsequent to the American Civil War, particularly after 1880, in connection with the combination movement that began in American business at that time organization that fall into the category of "big business" include
Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart, De Beers, Microsoft and Citigroup .
Although the term has become common, there has never been general agreement as to what constituted "bigness." The large consolidated railroad and public utility systems have commonly been considered "big" because of the size of their fixed investments and their gross incomes. Industrial companies have been considered "big" both because of the absolute size of their assets and because of the size of their assets relative to the assets of other firms, especially competitors. The term has also been used in connection with the volume of sales of a particular business, especially when the sales of one concern were a substantial portion of the industry's sales.