The InfoTech 100


Slide Show: Asia's Top 10 IT Companies

Slide Show: North America's Top 10 IT Companies

Slide Show: Europe: The Telecoms Have It

Which companies are logging the strongest growth, which industries are the hottest, and how the winners are faring in a treacherous economic climate

How do you pick the best-performing tech companies in the world? At BusinessWeek, we sort through the financial results of 30,500 publicly traded companies and rank the tech players on four criteria: shareholder return, return on equity, total revenues, and revenue growth. The companies leading the list are those with the lowest aggregate ranking.

Amazon.com and Apple took the top two spots this year. Still, the dominance of U.S. companies is in decline: The country has 33 companies among the IT 100 this year, down from 43 in 2007. When we first started compiling the list in 1998 to rank tech's top performers, 75 of the winners were U.S. companies.

NOTE: A more complete explanation of methodology is below the table.

Click column heading once to reorder from highest to lowest. Click twice to reorder from lowest to highest.
Rank
Company Name
Industry*
Country
Revenues
Millions
Revenues
Rank
Rev. Growth
Percent
Rev. Growth
Rank
ROE
Percent
ROE
Rank
Shareholder Return
Percent
Shareholder Return
Rank
Profits
Millions
1 AMAZON.COM  NETU.S.15,955.0 23 39 29 35 22 28 29 508 
2 APPLE  COMPU.S.28,747.0 15 33 39 24 44 74 10 4348 
3 RESEARCH IN MOTION  COMMCanada5,765.9 55 66 8 33 24 152 1 1241 
4 NINTENDO  SOFTJapan14,876.5 25 73 5 21 60 55 17 2289 
5 WESTERN DIGITAL  COMPU.S.7,448.0 47 44 25 36 19 64 12 866 
6 AMÉRICA MÓVIL  TELEMexico28,761.5 14 33 40 46 10 10 56 5408 
7 CHINA MOBILE  TELEChina45,863.1 9 21 61 23 48 90 9 11780 
8 NOKIA  COMMFinland73,344.4 6 24 55 49 8 8 60 10350 
9 ASUSTEK COMPUTER  COMPTaiwan17,343.8 20 57 11 16 76 38 21 672 
10 HIGH TECH COMPUTER  COMPTaiwan3,232.5 70 45 23 59 5 111 6 782 
11 GOOGLE  NETU.S.18,116.1 18 51 16 19 70 22 36 4509 
12 MTN GROUP  TELES. Africa10,208.4 35 42 28 22 53 41 20 1480 
13 IBM  COMPU.S.101,259.0 4 9 95 38 17 20 38 10893 
14 MOBILE TELESYSTEMS  TELERussia8,252.4 44 29 47 38 16 26 31 2072 
15 TELEFÓNICA  TELESpain81,077.0 5 7 98 44 11 16 44 12793 
16 VIMPELCOM  TELERussia7,164.6 49 47 20 27 32 19 39 1463 
17 HON HAI PRECISION IND.  COMPTaiwan40,876.4 11 45 22 23 50 -3 82 1853 
18 AT&T  TELEU.S.120,703.0 1 58 9 11 95 4 68 12564 
19 ACCENTURE  SVCSU.S.23,276.6 16 19 65 69 3 -3 83 1450 
20 LG ELECTRONICS  COMPKorea56,834.8 8 15 81 15 81 151 2 1307 
21 BHARTI AIRTEL  COMMIndia4,605.8 61 58 10 35 20 11 55 1016 
22 ORACLE  SOFTU.S.21,020.0 17 24 57 24 43 11 52 5088 
23 MICROSOFT  SOFTU.S.57,954.0 7 17 76 44 12 -3 84 16419 
24 MAROC TELECOM  TELEMorocco3,495.6 65 22 59 46 9 49 18 1020 
25 TURKCELL ILETISIM HIZMETLERI  TELETurkey6,328.6 52 35 35 23 47 34 24 1350 
26 LG DISPLAY  COMMKorea15,267.5 24 35 33 16 78 17 41 1430 
27 NHN  NETKorea686.3 100 56 12 40 15 59 14 160 
28 COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM.  TELEGreece4,396.1 63 28 49 53 7 17 43 519 
29 MILLICOM INTL. CELLULAR  TELELux.2,630.6 77 67 6 34 23 12 50 439 
30 HEWLETT-PACKARD  COMPU.S.107,671.0 2 14 83 21 61 11 54 7850 
31 COMPAL ELECTRONICS  COMPTaiwan11,838.4 32 44 24 12 94 18 40 271 
32 SISTEMA  TELERussia10,862.8 34 43 27 18 71 10 57 813 
33 ORASCOM TELECOM  TELEEgypt4,545.8 62 35 32 36 18 5 66 755 
34 SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS  SEMIKorea104,791.6 3 15 80 12 93 25 32 7894 
35 CHINA UNITED TELECOMMUNICATIONS  TELEChina13,594.1 30 25 54 10 98 64 13 762 
36 MOBINIL  TELEEgypt1,471.9 92 29 48 104 2 36 22 327 
37 CARSO GLOBAL TELECOM  TELEMexico16,154.6 22 7 97 43 13 4 70 1156 
38 KONINKLIJKE KPN  TELENeth.17,900.1 19 4 99 59 6 -3 81 3810 
39 CISCO SYSTEMS  COMMU.S.37,684.0 13 18 72 25 41 -4 86 8069 
40 WISTRON  COMPTaiwan6,843.4 50 34 36 19 69 17 42 165 
41 MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS  TELEKuwait6,038.0 54 39 30 20 64 13 49 1154 
42 ACTIVISION  SOFTU.S.2,608.2 78 88 2 15 82 35 23 286 
43 REDECARD  SVCSBrazil984.6 97 305 1 135 1 NA78 385 
44 CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR  SEMIU.S.1,695.6 87 43 26 26 36 23 34 378 
45 ZTE  COMMChina4,705.6 59 51 15 10 99 34 25 169 
46 LENOVO GROUP  COMPHong Kong14,590.2 27 10 94 14 86 91 8 161 
47 TELEMAR NORTE LESTE  TELEBrazil9,645.8 39 4 100 20 67 111 5 1478 
48 CORNING  COMMU.S.6,170.0 53 18 70 27 34 13 47 2852 
49 PRICELINE.COM  NETU.S.1,390.8 93 24 56 27 33 129 4 157 
50 TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MFG.  SEMITaiwan9,826.4 37 19 66 25 39 2 73 3932 
Next > [Last Page]

NOTES: *INDUSTRIES: Dist=Distributors, Comm=Communications equipment, Comp=Computers and peripherals, Net=Internet companies, Semi=Semiconductors, Soft=Software, Svcs=Services, Tele=Telecommunications †Total return is for less than one year

METHODOLOGY AND GLOSSARY: To compile the information for the Infotech 100, BusinessWeek began with financial data from Standard & Poor's Compustat, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies that has computerized data on over 30,500 publicly traded corporations. We trimmed this universe to information-technology companies. To qualify, companies had to have revenues of at least $300 million.

We divided this collection of about 800 companies into eight industry categories, such as software and semiconductors. 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 gives them an unfair advantage over competitors. The remaining group of companies was ranked on four criteria: return on equity, shareholder return and revenue growth (which were given equal weight), and total revenues (which were weighted). The rankings for each company were added together, and those with the lowest aggregate score topped the list. Then the top 100 companies were reranked as a group.

Revenues Latest available revenues for the most recent 12-month period for U.S. companies and the latest annual revenues for non- U.S. companies. Includes all sales and other operating revenues.

Revenue Growth Percentage change in revenues compared with the previous corresponding year-ago period, in native currency.

Return On Equity Net income available for shareholders divided by common equity, in native currency.

Total Return The total return to shareholders, including dividends for the 12 months ended April 30, 2008.

Profits Latest available profits for the last 12-month period for U.S. companies; the latest annual profits for non-U.S. companies. Net income from continuing operations before extraordinary items.

Note: Data compiled by Standard & Poor’s from sources such as statistical services, registration statements, and company reports that S&P believes to be reliable but are not guaranteed by S&P or BusinessWeek as to correctness or completeness. This material is not an offer to buy or sell any security.