can expect from exxonmobil. maybe this is the best that exxon can do, but it's hard not to expect more from the richest company in the history of companies. from a company as massive and as powerful and as rich as exxon. exxon holds the all-time record in the united states for quarterly profits for a corporation. ever. to aheave that record, they had to beat out themselves since exxon held the previous record for the most profitable corporation in any one quart e ever. last year exxon's $45 billion profit, profit, $45 billion take home, last year exxon's $45 billion in profit ranked it number two on the fortune 500 list of the most profitable u.s. companies. that $45 billion profit last year represents a down year for exxon. steve cull's book called "private empire" describes an empire that's so big and rich it's adopted an internal corporate philosophy not just