Tech vendors dominate upper echelons of Forbes' innovation list

Salesforce, Apple, SAP and Citrix among those that made it into list of top 100 most innovative firms in the world

A slew of tech vendors have made it into Forbes' list of the most innovative firms in the world.

Cloud giant Salesforce.com topped the list, with rival VMware coming third. British chip maker ARM holdings ranked fifth on the list, narrowly ahead of Amazon in seventh position.

The companies were ranked according to what Forbes describes as its "innovation premium" - the difference between their market cap and present net cashflow value.

Salesforce.com achieved its top position based on annual revenue growth of 32.1 per cent in the past 12 months, while close follower VMware held its place in third thanks to a 16.3 per cent annual boost in sales, Forbes said.

Google and Citrix featured mid-table on the rankings, claiming 47th and 50th positions respectively, while SAP and Apple popped up in 72nd and 79th place.

The tech giants rubbed shoulders with other global heavyweights including Starbucks and Kellog, which took 19th and 54th place on the list respectively.

The recently published World's Most Innovative Companies List ranks firms with seven years of public financial data and a minimum $10bn (£6.41bn) market cap. Firms below an unspecified spend on research and development are also excluded, meaning banks and energy firms do not feature on the list, Forbes said.