World's 10 Fastest-growing IT cos

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With global economy still showing few signs of a firm recovery, it's a tough going for companies. Though some surveys suggest that the worst is over, the recovery outlook is still hazy.

However, despite the adverse climate, there are companies which continue to grow. Defying the economic downturn, these companies not only managed to hold forte, but posted impressive revenue and profit growth.

Fortune magazine recently announced its annual list of 100 Fastest-growing companies globally. The list has as many as 25 technology companies. We bring to you top ten from the list.

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Research In Motion

The Fastest-growing companies list is dominated by the maker of Blackberry phones, Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM). In the last 10 years, RIM sold 65 million phones and holds a plump 74% share of business smartphone market.

The company in the past four quarters posted $11,065.2 million in revenues. RIM, which has a stock worth of $44 billion, is expected to see three-year average earnings-per-share growth of 84% and revenue growth of 77%.

Founded in 1984, the company expects to add about 12,000 employees by the end of this year. In its latest quarterly report, RIM's net income was $643 million (33% increase from the same quarter last year) and total revenues in the quarter were $3.42 billion.

The company has lately been facing tough competition from Apple iPhone. However, for the first half of this year, BlackBerry Curve outsold iPhone, making it the bestselling consumer smartphone in the US.

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Sigma Designs

At No. 2 on the world's Fastest-growing companies list is Sigma Designs, a system-on-chip (SoC) solution provider. These are processors that are used to decode high definition video and power multimedia software for consumer electronics.

According to Fortune, the company in the past four quarters posted $209.2 million in revenues. The company sees earnings-per-share growth of 338% and revenue growth of 104%.

Recently the company announced a partnership with 4Home, a provider of home control services. The partners will offer set-top box suppliers a home control solution based on 4Home's software platform and Sigma's Z-Wave ecosystem of RF-based home control devices.

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Sohu.com

China's leading internet portal Sohu.com is at No. 3 on the list of world's fastest growing companies. Sohu.com is best known for live broadcasts of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on its Web sites. The Chinese Internet company also owns the popular search engine Sogou.com and the gaming portal, Changyou. Recently, it launched a social networking site called Bai Shehui, or White Society.

The company in the past four quarters posted $460 million in revenues seeing a revenue growth rate of 59%. The company sees earnings-per-share growth of 78%.

The company in July reported its quarterly results. Total revenues were $127.1 million, up 25% year-on-year, while brand advertising revenues hit $43.6 million, up 5% year-on-year and 12% quarter-on-quarter.

The company reported strong performance on its online game operations which saw Online game revenues reaching $66.6 million, up 39% year-on-year and 8% quarter-on-quarter. Net income rose 16% to $49 million, or 90 US cents a share.

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Ebix

At No. 4 on the list of world's fastest growing companies is international supplier of on-demand software and ecommerce services to the insurance industry, Ebix. The Atlanta-based company reportedly runs online exchanges for insurance policies, annuities, and other products.

According to Fortune magazine, the company in the past four quarters posted $78.8 million in revenues, seeing 50% revenue growth.

The company recently reported total revenue of $22.42 million for the second quarter of 2009, compared to $17.80 million for the second quarter of 2008, marking a 26% increase in revenues.

With over 23 offices across Singapore, Australia, US, New Zealand, India and Canada, Ebix offers services in the field of life, annuity, health and property & casualty insurance.

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Millicom International Cellular

Telecom operator Millicom International Cellular SA (MICC) is the world's 14th fastest growing company. Luxembourg-based cell phone service provider has a strong focus on Third World.

The company's low-cost Tigo brand has about 34 million subscribers in these regions. Millicom gets the bulk of its revenue from Latin America, where it has long-established networks.

In the past four quarters, Millicom posted $3,464.6 million in revenues and is targeting a 50% growth in the current year.

Nadaq and Stockholm-listed company offers prepaid cellular telephony services to more than 30 million customers in 16 emerging markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The company's strategy is to builds networks in highly populated areas, where its offers low-priced service and quickly recoups its capital investment.

In July, Millicom reported Q2 revenues up 5% to $814 million. Telecom operator recently sold its Cambodian operations for $346 million in cash to The Royal Group, its partner in the country.

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Open Text

At No. 15 is the Canada-based enterprise content management software leader Open Text. Open Text commands as much as 20% of the content management software market.

Having operations in over 114 countries, the company offers Content experts to help organizations capture and preserve corporate memory, increase brand equity, automate processes and mitigate risk.

According to Fortune, the company in the past four quarters posted $782.6 million in revenues seeing 27% growth. Founded in 1991, the company has close to 3000 employees.

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Pegasystems

At No. 19 on the world's Fastest-growing companies list is Business Process Management (BPM) firm Pegasystems. The company according to Fortune, works to fix problems in the computer systems of some of American's largest corporations, helping companies like Ford, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo to identify fraud and manage payments, among other things.

For the quarter ended June 30, Pegasystems posted a record 25% jump in revenue from $51.1m to $63.9m. This was helped by an increase in revenue from software licences, which rose from $15.8m a year ago to $25.6m. Over the first six months of 2009, software licence revenue rose 61%, from $33.3m to $53.7m. The company turned in net income of $11.2m, up from $2.8m a year ago.

The company's competition in BPM space includes Cordys, Lombardi and TIBCO as well as offerings from Software AG, IBM and Oracle.

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ANSYS

Next on the list of fastest growing companies is ANSYS ranked at No 33. Engineering simulation software maker in the past four quarters posted $485.1 million in revenues, seeing a growth rate of 44%.

Ansys Inc recently posted a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street expectations, helped mainly by a rise in maintenance and services revenue. Second-quarter net income fell to $27.1 million, or 30 cents per share, from $28.1 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company reported earnings of 41 cents a share. Adjusted revenue rose about 12% to $124.2 million.

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Apple

At No. 39 is the US-headquartered Apple, the maker of world's most iconic gadgets including iPhone, iMac and iPod.

According to Fortune, the company posted $33,689 million in revenues, seeing 27% revenue growth. The company reported $32,479 million revenue in 2008, 35.3 per cent up from 2007. Profits were $4,834 million, up 38.3 per cent as compared to previous year.

Bucking the global recessionary trend, IT giant Apple breached the $10 billion-mark in revenues in the quarter ended December 2008. The company recorded revenue and profit during its fiscal first quarter on the strength of laptop, iPod, and iPhone sales.

The company this year launched the latest version of its most-popular smartphone iPhone, termed iPhone 3GS.

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AsiaInfo Holdings

AsiaInfo Holdings, China-based telecom software solutions provider, is the world's 40th Fastest-growing company.

The company offers telecommunications service providers in China total network solutions for their Internet infrastructure requirements and develops proprietary software for Internet service providers, Internet content providers and telecommunications service providers.

The company in the past four quarters posted $191.5 million in revenues, seeing 23% revenue growth. According to reports, AsiaInfo Holdings Inc has a market cap of $823.2 million.

The company recently announced a revenue growth of 39.3% year on year in the second quarter of this year. The company's net profit totalled $7.2 million in the second quarter as compared to $5.2 million during the same period a year earlier, and $5.8 million over the previous quarter.

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Infosys Technologies

The Indian entry in the list of world's fastest growing technology companies is the country's second largest software services exporter by sales Infosys Technologies at no 100.

The company in the last four quarters posted $4,663 million in revenues, seeing 33% revenue growth. The software major recently reported a 17.28% growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,527 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2009. The firm had a net profit of Rs 1,302 crore in the first quarter of the previous fiscal.

The income of the company from software services, products and business process management stood at Rs 5,472 crore for the Q1, 12.73% up from Rs 4,854 crore in the corresponding period a year-ago.

The company recently said that it is seeing an improvement in consumer demand even as the company remains cautious on client spending.

Source: Indiatimes