Heavyweights fail to make growth grade

Big names absent from IT players listed in five-year survey of fastest-growing global companies

Dell, Cisco, EMC and Computer 2000 have been named as some of the 200 fastest-growing companies worldwide, but Microsoft, Intel and Compaq were nowhere to be seen.

These are the findings of a report by research firm World Link, which has been monitoring companies? growth since 1992. The average rate of growth was found to be 69 per cent, with the highest five-year growth rate at over 200 per cent. The lowest rate required to make the list is about 40 per cent.

Networking giant Cisco recorded a rate of growth of 95.2 per cent over the five-year period, placing it at 27 in the top 200, way ahead of rivals Newbridge Networks and 3Com, which came in at number 167, with 44 per cent growth, and number 183, with 42.3 per cent growth, respectively.

The only PC vendor to make the grade was Dell. Positioned as the world?s 96th fastest growing company between 1992 and 1997, Dell recorded an average growth rate of 57.5 per cent. Storage vendor EMC, which has recently signed a deal with Siemens Nixdorf, was placed at number 79, showing 62.2 per cent growth over the period.

The software industry was represented by Sage and Corel. With 50.2 per cent average growth, Sage was listed at 125. Corel came in at 133, with 49.6 per cent growth.

German distributor Computer 2000 was listed at number 118 with 52.2 per cent growth, and US giant Tech Data was at 146 with 47.5 per cent growth. Third-party maintainer and reseller Wakebourne reached 40th position, showing a 84.6 per cent growth on sales of $55.17 million. High street retailer Electronics Boutique, which has been in the UK for two years, reached number 57, with a growth rate of 74.9 per cent and sales of $86.2 million.