The technology industry moves as one of the most attractive and dynamic of the moment.
It is not coincident that in the lists of the most millionaire characters in the world and the companies most valued financially are companies in this sector and their respective founders or executive directors.
And it is in this line that Thomson Reuters Corp published its debut list of the “100 leading technology companies worldwide”.
The list, which aims to identify the most financially successful and resonant companies in the industry, surprised not to include Amazon.com Inc, the world’s largest online retailer and Facebook Inc, the social media empire of Facebook, within the first ten.
Next, we review the most outstanding ones.
1. Microsoft Corp
The company founded by Bill Gates has been able to evolve and go beyond its flagship product, the Windows operating system. The company specializes in being a platform focused on productivity for companies and users with mobility and the cloud as dominant trends of the moment.
It is currently led by Satya Nadella and has net income of US $ 89,500 million at the end of the 2017 fiscal year.
As revealed by its own CEO in an interview this year, the number of Windows users has decreased in recent years to 1,000 million, to figure that contrasts with 2014 when it amounted to some 1,500 million users. Even so, the figures keep it as dominant in the industry.
The situation is partly explained by the fact that PC sales are falling worldwide, with the rise of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Hence, the company is focusing its efforts on cloud services and business software, businesses that are giving it great benefits.
2. Intel Corp
Although the company has a good position in this list, the latest news has been received is not the best. His name has been involved in one of the biggest cybersecurity scandals of the last time.
The already famous Meltdown and Specter errors were revealed by security researchers and sparked chaos by revealing that they would allow hackers to break into computers and mobile devices using Intel chips. The situation is still open, because the final solutions have not arrived at all, due to the magnitude of the failures.
Added to this, according to the query Gartner, Samsung snatched the historic leadership (25 years) as the largest provider of memories to Intel. Even so, the company based in Santa Clara, California, dominates, with more than 90% of participation, in the market of microprocessors for computers and servers.
In the last annual report, its 2016 earnings were close to US $ 60,000 million. Despite this, it will be interesting to see how this company, founded in 1968, will emerge from this scandal.
At the moment, it continues to advance with a strong investment in R & D including technologies related to autonomous driving, 5G networks, artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality.
3. Cisco Systems Inc.
Originally from San Francisco, California, the US multinational is specialized in the manufacture, sale, maintenance and consulting of telecommunications equipment. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2018, the giant network has reached net income of about US $ 2,400 million.
The company had a very active 2017 in terms of acquisitions, since in March it acquired AppDynamics Inc for US $ 3,700 million and in October it bought BroadSoft in an agreement valued at US $ 1,900 million.
These steps give an account of the company’s strategy of turning to such areas as security, Internet of Things and the cloud and diversifying its business of switches and routers.
The rest of the places in the top 10 occupy it:
4th Apple Inc, electronic devices, software and online services.
5th Alphabet Inc, parent of Google; developer of internet products and services and technologies.
6th International Business Machines Corp (IBM), IT development and consulting.
7th Texas Instruments Inc (TI), semiconductors and computer technology.
8th Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), manufacturer of microchips.
9th SAP, computer products and business software.
10 ° Accenture, consulting, technological and outsourcing services.
It is appropriate to point out that the rest of the 90 companies are not positioned in certain places. Even so, the series adjusts to those companies that have at least US $ 1,000 million annual income.
According to the list, 45% of those 100 are companies that are headquartered in the United States. Japan and Taiwan are together in second place, with 13 companies each, followed by India with five technology leaders on the list.
The results are based on an algorithm of 28 factors that measure performance through eight benchmarks: finance, administration and investor confidence, risk and resilience, legal compliance, innovation, people and social responsibility, environmental impact and reputation.
