> I think the author is being facetious/sarcastic

Neither, They're stating a fact.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/02/16/the-most-...

Valuable in terms of market capitalization[1].

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporations_by_market_...

In terms of market capitalization, it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporations_by_market_...

Actually, It's the most valuable publicly traded company by market cap. Saudi Aramco's worth trillions (some estimates go as high as 15 trillion)! :D

They have at least 260 billion barrels of oil, most of which are easily recoverable for less than $3 per barrel: http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/09/worlds-biggest-oil-companie... - That's a lot of money...

The consensus definition of market capitalization is the value of all outstanding shares of publicly traded companies, expressly. At least that is the context in which I was referring.

Hmm... I guess you're right. My bad!