NEW YORK, June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Amazon.com has vaulted from No.23 in 2006 to the No.1 spot, topping the 2007 Information Technology 100, BusinessWeek's ranking of the top tech performers. The report appears in BusinessWeek's July 2, 2007 issue, with expanded content on BusinessWeek.com at http://www.businessweek.com/it100/.
If there's one theme that unites the companies on the 2007 InfoTech100, it's reinvention. The foray into emerging markets by Nokia, which ranked 17th, is just one example. An ability to rapidly diversify into new businesses or turn existing markets upside down pops up again and again in the lineup. And it is an eclectic group, ranging from the top Web retailer, No.1 Amazon.com, to a Latin American wireless provider, No.2 America Movil, and perhaps the hottest tech outfit around, No.6 Apple.
Of course, high-tech markets have long demanded more frequent and rapid change. One thing different now is that the rise of high-speed Internet access and mobile computing are creating new opportunities for transformation. America Movil, the predominant wireless operator in Latin America, had another banner year in 2006 by adding 31 million data-hungry wireless customers in 15 countries throughout the Americas, including the U.S.
Our top-ranked company, Amazon.com Inc., demonstrates another power of Internet technology: It's a super-efficient lever that can catapult a company into new markets. In its most recent quarter, Amazon's profits surged 115% on a 39% jump in sales. One reason is a sizable, growing business in helping other retailers sell their wares on Amazon, for which it charges high-margin fees.
To compile the InfoTech100, BusinessWeek began with financial data from Standard & Poor's Compustat, also a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, that has computerized information on over 28,000 publicly traded corporations. BusinessWeek trimmed this universe to information-technology companies. This year, cable companies that expanded into telecom were added. To qualify, companies had to have revenues of at least $300 million. Companies whose stock price has dropped more than 75%, whose sales shrank, or where other developments raised questions about future performance, were eliminated from contention. We also dropped some phone companies whose monopoly or near- monopoly power in their countries gives them an unfair advantage over competitors. The remaining group of companies were ranked on four criteria: return on equity, revenue growth, and shareholder return (given equal weight), and total revenues (which was weighted).
BusinessWeek's InfoTech100
July 2, 2007 Issue
Rank Company Country Rank Company Country
1 AMAZON.COM U.S. 51 CANON Japan
2 AMERICA MOVIL Mexico 52 DIRECTV GROUP U.S.
3 TELEFONICA Spain 53 SILICONWARE PRECISION Taiwan
INDS.
4 HON HAI PRECISION Taiwan 54 KDDI Japan
IND.
5 TELENOR Norway 55 LM ERICSSON Sweden
6 APPLE COMPUTER U.S. 56 VTECH HOLDINGS Hong Kong
7 AT&T U.S. 57 HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR Korea
8 NINTENDO Japan 58 FIDELITY NATIONAL U.S.
INFO. SVCS.
9 MICROSOFT U.S. 59 TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR Taiwan
MFG.
10 CHINA MOBILE Hong Kong 60 VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR U.S.
EQUIP.
11 RESEARCH IN MOTION Canada 61 CDW U.S.
12 VIMPELCOM Russia 62 COMCAST U.S.
13 BT GROUP Britain 63 COMPAL ELECTRONICS Taiwan
14 BHARTI AIRTEL India 64 WINDSTREAM U.S.
15 MOBILE TELESYSTEMS Russia 65 AUTODESK U.S.
16 ACCENTURE U.S. 66 AMPHENOL U.S.
17 NOKIA Finland 67 POWERCHIP Taiwan
SEMICONDUCTOR
18 MILLICOM INTL. Luxembourg 68 TOSHIBA Japan
CELLULAR
19 GOOGLE U.S. 69 SAIC U.S.
20 CISCO SYSTEMS U.S. 70 COGNIZANT TECH. U.S.
SOLUTIONS
21 IBM U.S. 71 ALLTEL U.S.
22 ORACLE U.S. 72 COMMSCOPE U.S.
23 TATA CONSULTANCY India 73 SATYAM COMPUTER SVCS. India
SERVICES
24 ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL U.S. 74 L-3 COMMUNICATIONS U.S.
HLDGS.
25 VERIZON U.S. 75 DIGITAL CHINA Hong Kong
COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS
26 COSMOTE MOBILE Greece 76 HCL TECHNOLOGIES India
TELECOM.
27 KONINKLIJKE KPN Netherlands 77 INVENTEC Taiwan
28 WISTRON Taiwan 78 QIMONDA Germany
29 ASUSTEK COMPUTER Taiwan 79 ARROW ELECTRONICS U.S.
30 INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES India 80 ELPIDA MEMORY Japan
31 TELEKOMUNIKASI Indonesia 81 TOKYO ELECTRON Japan
INDONESIA
32 MEMC ELECTRONIC U.S. 82 TELUS Canada
MATERIALS
33 GRUPO IUSACELL Mexico 83 TURKCELL ILETISIM Turkey
HIZMETLERI
34 SIEMENS Germany 84 HARRIS U.S.
35 HEWLETT-PACKARD U.S. 85 QUANTA COMPUTER Taiwan
36 NVIDIA U.S. 86 NIKON Japan
37 APPLIED MATERIALS U.S. 87 AUTOMATIC DATA U.S.
PROCESSING
38 LIBERTY GLOBAL U.S. 88 EMC U.S.
39 SOFTBANK Japan 89 QUALCOMM U.S.
40 ASML HOLDING Netherlands 90 SES Luxembourg
41 SMART MODULAR TECH. U.S. 91 SHAW COMMUNICATIONS Canada
42 NANYA TECHNOLOGY Taiwan 92 ACER Taiwan
43 HIGH TECH COMPUTER Taiwan 93 ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS U.S.
44 ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS Canada 94 PRICELINE.COM U.S.
45 LAM RESEARCH U.S. 95 KLA-TENCOR U.S.
46 TD AMERITRADE HOLDING U.S. 96 ADVANCED Taiwan
SEMICONDUCTOR ENG.
47 AMKOR TECHNOLOGY U.S. 97 FISERV U.S.
48 AVNET U.S. 98 ADOBE SYSTEMS U.S.
49 WIPRO India 99 D-LINK Taiwan
50 NII HOLDINGS U.S. 100 LOGITECH Switzerland
INTERNATIONAL
