IT 100: The North American Top 10
28 May 2008
Amazon.com
These days, Amazon.com is more than books; it’s even more than a virtual peddler of everything from home appliances to digital music. The Internet giant has moved beyond retail, offering e-commerce, computing, and physical distribution services to other businesses for lucrative fees.
Apple
The company’s innovative iPhone is roiling the handset business and causing competitors to rethink their smartphone strategies. The ubiquitous iPod dominates the digital music player market and its iTunes digital music store is one of the most popular shopping spots on the Internet.
Research In Motion
One company that has held up well against the Apple iPhone is Research In Motion. It’s the only company with an electronic device, the popular BlackBerry whose cultural cachet matches Apple’s. Some 2.18 million net new BlackBerry subscribers were added in the quarter, bringing the total BlackBerry subscriber account base to more than 14 million.
Western Digital
The storage business has been good to Western Digital. For the quarter ended in March, the company shipped nearly 35 million hard drives, sending revenue to $2 billion, a 43% jump over last year’s figure.
América Móvil
The predominant wireless operator in Latin America is among the world’s leading tech companies. Revenues were up 33%, to $28.7 billion, and earnings were $5.4 billion.
The search giant dominates. When it comes to Internet searches, it’s light years ahead of its closet rival, Yahoo. It’s continuing to capitalize on its leading position in the online advertising business by moving into other forms of advertising, from online display ads to radio, TV, and newspaper ads.
IBM
IBM can thank its strength in international markets for insulating it against a tough U.S. economic climate. Its revenue for the first quarter was $24.5 billion, an increase of 11% over last year. The company’s stock has responded. Shares are now trading around 125, up from the 100 range they were in at the start of the year.
AT&T
For the March quarter, AT&T has been able to build revenues from $26.2 billion to $27.7 billion, compared to the same quarter last year. Even better, the company has been able to reduce the percentage of sales devoted to cost of goods sold from 42.9% to 42.6%. That has helped drive bottom-line growth from $2.8 billion to $3.5 billion.
Accenture
Accenture continues to withstand the onslaught of Indian tech-services companies better than most of its Western tech consulting rivals. For the second quarter, ended Feb. 29, revenues grew 18% to $5.6 billion, compared with the same quarter last year. The company brought in new bookings of $6.4 billion for the period, with record quarterly consulting bookings of $3.79 billion.
Oracle
A string of acquisitions (the latest, BAE Systems) hasn’t slowed this database giant as it morphs into a full-service supplier of enterprise software. Compared to the same quarter last year, Oracle has been able to build revenues from $4.4 billion to $5.3 billion. What’s more, the company has been able to reduce the percentage of revenues devoted to selling, general, and administrative costs from 25.87% to 24.10%.