TAIPEI: Despite a bruising global recession that has hurt Taiwan's exporters, four local information technology (IT) companies have made the top 10 of Business Week Magazine's 2009 InfoTech 100.

The four outstanding tech firms are Inventec (4th) , Quanta Computer (7th), Wistron (8th) and Acer (10th).

Taiwan's placement of four companies in the top 10 outranked all others on the list. Three American companies were also on the list.

With the help of Standard & Poor's Compustat, the US magazine combed the financial results of tens of thousands of publicly traded businesses and ranked technology companies based on four criteria - shareholder return, return on equity, total revenues and revenue growth.

Leading the list are those with the best aggregate ranking. Amazon.com was No 1 for the second consecutive year and the two other US tech players in the top 10 are Oracle at number two and IBM at number five.

Rounding out the top 10 are Germany's SAP (third), India's Bharti Airtel (sixth) and the Chinese mainland's Tencent Holdings (ninth).

Meanwhile, six other Taiwanese companies made the top 100 - Asustek Computer (26th) , Hon Hai Precision (40th), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (48th), Compal Electronic (50th) and Simplo (52nd).

According to an article printed on the magazine's Website, the magazine trimmed its survey to IT companies with annual revenues of at least $500 million, and declines in share prices less than 50 percent and contraction of revenues of less than 5 percent.

Telecommunications companies were excluded because many have monopoly or near-monopoly power that may give them an advantage over competitors.

The list will be published in the magazine's June 1 issue, which will include an interview with Quanta Computer Chairman Barry Lam on the company's future development direction and challenges.

Local industry analysts said the four Taiwanese companies in the top 10 have a common theme - they have all benefited from the rise of smaller, low-price laptops called netbooks.

In the interview, Lam was asked whether netbook sales will cannibalize sales of more expensive notebooks.

In response, Lam said that his company's sales have continued to expand, despite the growth of the netbook market.

"The revenues keep growing, which means (people) are buying more netbooks than notebooks. The replacement speed is faster. So we keep making good profits," Lam said in the interview.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 05/28/2009 page2)