Triumph of the old over the new General Electric has replaced Microsoft as the FT500's number one company - the rise of a traditional player at the expense of a technology stock is symbolic of the movements in this year's rankings as a whole Read Europe Volatile telecoms sector Vodafone, the UK-based mobile telephone group, has become Europe's biggest company by market capitalisation, rising from the sixth place it occupied last year United States Last year's superstars quit the stage The list of unhappy departures from the list of the most valuable US companies of 2001 reads like a roll call of last year's high-flyers Japan Failing to regain its bite Ten years of economic stagnation have taken its toll, Japan now accounts for a mere 64 of the top global 500 companies Middle East Lies and statistics The huge government share ownership of Arab companies creates many anomalies when calculating market capitalisation