2008 Fast Tech Report Card

[Prashanth]

Andrea D. Murphy, Forbes.com

When a new Forbes 25 Fast Tech list comes out each January, we look back at the previous year's list and see how it stacked up against the market. From Jan. 11, 2008 to Jan. 16, 2009, the 25 companies on the 2008 list had an average loss of 30%. In comparison, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq technology index both posted losses of 39%.

Helping our performance last year was the acquisition of two companies, DRS Technologies and LifeCell, which we closed out with price gains of 52% and 18% respectively. Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica completed its $5.2 billion purchase of DRS Technologies in October of last year. Biotech LifeCell was acquired by Kinetic Concepts, a medical technology company, in May 2008.

Genentech was the only other company from the 2008 list with a positive price gain, up 19%. The San Francisco biotech pioneer reported better-than-expected sales of its cancer drugs, specifically Avastin, a treatment for colorectal, breast and lung cancers. Genentech turned down a takeover bid of $89 a share in August of last year from its majority shareholder German pharmaceutical firm Roche Holding, but Roche says that it still plans to acquire the 44% of the company it does not already own.

The biggest losers from the 2008 Fast Tech were Diodes, down 74%, and Euronet Worldwide, down 62%. Euronet Worldwide operates networks of cash machines for banks in Europe and Asia. The company reported a decline in earnings for the first three quarters of 2008.


source:yahoo
Google, our top-ranked Fast Tech company last year (and No. 2 this year), fell 53%. Despite the drop in its share price, Google reported 18% revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Prices as of Jan. 16. *Acquired; performance through acquisition date. Sources: FT Interactive Data, Reuters Fundamentals, Thomson IBES and Worldscope via FactSet Research Systems.