The InfoTech 100

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	NET	U.S.	15,955.0	23	39	29	35	22	28	29	508
2	APPLE	COMP	U.S.	28,747.0	15	33	39	24	44	74	10	4348
3	RESEARCH IN MOTION	COMM	Canada	5,765.9	55	66	8	33	24	152	1	1241
4	NINTENDO	SOFT	Japan	14,876.5	25	73	5	21	60	55	17	2289
5	WESTERN DIGITAL	COMP	U.S.	7,448.0	47	44	25	36	19	64	12	866
6	AM?ICA M?IL	TELE	Mexico	28,761.5	14	33	40	46	10	10	56	5408
7	CHINA MOBILE	TELE	China	45,863.1	9	21	61	23	48	90	9	11780
8	NOKIA	COMM	Finland	73,344.4	6	24	55	49	8	8	60	10350
9	ASUSTEK COMPUTER	COMP	Taiwan	17,343.8	20	57	11	16	76	38	21	672
10	HIGH TECH COMPUTER	COMP	Taiwan	3,232.5	70	45	23	59	5	111	6	782
11	GOOGLE	NET	U.S.	18,116.1	18	51	16	19	70	22	36	4509
12	MTN GROUP	TELE	S. Africa	10,208.4	35	42	28	22	53	41	20	1480
13	IBM	COMP	U.S.	101,259.0	4	9	95	38	17	20	38	10893
14	MOBILE TELESYSTEMS	TELE	Russia	8,252.4	44	29	47	38	16	26	31	2072
15	TELEF?ICA	TELE	Spain	81,077.0	5	7	98	44	11	16	44	12793
16	VIMPELCOM	TELE	Russia	7,164.6	49	47	20	27	32	19	39	1463
17	HON HAI PRECISION IND.	COMP	Taiwan	40,876.4	11	45	22	23	50	-3	82	1853
18	AT&T	TELE	U.S.	120,703.0	1	58	9	11	95	4	68	12564
19	ACCENTURE	SVCS	U.S.	23,276.6	16	19	65	69	3	-3	83	1450
20	LG ELECTRONICS	COMP	Korea	56,834.8	8	15	81	15	81	151	2	1307
21	BHARTI AIRTEL	COMM	India	4,605.8	61	58	10	35	20	11	55	1016
22	ORACLE	SOFT	U.S.	21,020.0	17	24	57	24	43	11	52	5088
23	MICROSOFT	SOFT	U.S.	57,954.0	7	17	76	44	12	-3	84	16419
24	MAROC TELECOM	TELE	Morocco	3,495.6	65	22	59	46	9	49	18	1020
25	TURKCELL ILETISIM HIZMETLERI	TELE	Turkey	6,328.6	52	35	35	23	47	34	24	1350
26	LG DISPLAY	COMM	Korea	15,267.5	24	35	33	16	78	17	41	1430
27	NHN	NET	Korea	686.3	100	56	12	40	15	59	14	160
28	COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM.	TELE	Greece	4,396.1	63	28	49	53	7	17	43	519
29	MILLICOM INTL. CELLULAR	TELE	Lux.	2,630.6	77	67	6	34	23	12	50	439
30	HEWLETT-PACKARD	COMP	U.S.	107,671.0	2	14	83	21	61	11	54	7850
31	COMPAL ELECTRONICS	COMP	Taiwan	11,838.4	32	44	24	12	94	18	40	271
32	SISTEMA	TELE	Russia	10,862.8	34	43	27	18	71	10	57	813
33	ORASCOM TELECOM	TELE	Egypt	4,545.8	62	35	32	36	18	5	66	755
34	SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS	SEMI	Korea	104,791.6	3	15	80	12	93	25	32	7894
35	CHINA UNITED TELECOMMUNICATIONS	TELE	China	13,594.1	30	25	54	10	98	64	13	762
36	MOBINIL	TELE	Egypt	1,471.9	92	29	48	104	2	36	22	327
37	CARSO GLOBAL TELECOM	TELE	Mexico	16,154.6	22	7	97	43	13	4	70	1156
38	KONINKLIJKE KPN	TELE	Neth.	17,900.1	19	4	99	59	6	-3	81	3810
39	CISCO SYSTEMS	COMM	U.S.	37,684.0	13	18	72	25	41	-4	86	8069
40	WISTRON	COMP	Taiwan	6,843.4	50	34	36	19	69	17	42	165
41	MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS	TELE	Kuwait	6,038.0	54	39	30	20	64	13	49	1154
42	ACTIVISION	SOFT	U.S.	2,608.2	78	88	2	15	82	35	23	286
43	REDECARD	SVCS	Brazil	984.6	97	305	1	135	1	NA	78	385
44	CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR	SEMI	U.S.	1,695.6	87	43	26	26	36	23	34	378
45	ZTE	COMM	China	4,705.6	59	51	15	10	99	34	25	169
46	LENOVO GROUP	COMP	Hong Kong	14,590.2	27	10	94	14	86	91	8	161
47	TELEMAR NORTE LESTE	TELE	Brazil	9,645.8	39	4	100	20	67	111	5	1478
48	CORNING	COMM	U.S.	6,170.0	53	18	70	27	34	13	47	2852
49	PRICELINE.COM	NET	U.S.	1,390.8	93	24	56	27	33	129	4	157
50	TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MFG.	SEMI	Taiwan	9,826.4	37	19	66	25	39	2	73	3932