Celgene Corp. Debuts at top of Business 2.0’s 2006 List of 100 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies

Business 2.0 100’s shares on Wall Street up an average of 38 percent in 2005; California continues to dominate list with 41 companies

New York, NY — May 24, 2006 — Business 2.0 has released its 2006 ranking of the fastest-growing technology companies, dubbed the B2 100, an annual list of businesses whose inventiveness and quick reflexes are helping them set the pace for the economy. Topping the fifth-annual B2 100 published in the June issue (on newsstands May 29), is biotech company Celgene Corp., followed by Red Hat (No. 2), Apple Computer (No. 3), SanDisk (No. 4), with ValueClick rounding out the top five.

According to Business 2.0, during the past three years, public companies in the tech sector have increased sales by an average of 33 percent a year, stoked profits by 86 percent, and raised cash flow from operations by 83 percent. Wall Street has taken notice, sending the Business 2.0 100’s shares up an average of 38 percent in 2005.

A few big trends underscore the figures which determine this year’s rankings. “Automating the $2 trillion health-care industry continues to create giant opportunities, as 16 of the 100 companies are helping to speed up patient care, body scanning, blood testing, or drug discovery. The rapid spread of 3G wireless networks also boosted a variety of players, from Motorola and Qualcomm to F5 Networks. And online advertising has replaced retailing as the Web sector to watch: eBay, despite adding 3,500 employees and $1.3 billion in sales, couldn’t keep pace and fell from 14th on last year’s list to 92nd here, while Web-ad giants like aQuantive and Digitas made their B2 100 debuts,” the magazine reports.

Medical technology companies continue to be a dominant force on the B2 100 with 40 landing on the list, up from 29 a year ago. They also comprised 12 of the top 25, 5 of the top 10, and landed the top ranked company, Celgene Corp. Other dominant sectors include electronics (26), business services (10), software (13) and military suppliers (11).

The following companies comprise the top ten entries on this year’s list:

1. Celgene Corp. (CELG), Summit, NJ – In a reversal of fortune, sales at Celgene are booming, primarily thanks to thalidomide, a drug that was banned for decades for causing birth defects. Celgene pioneered it for use as an FDA-approved treatment for leprosy and multiple myeloma.

2. Red Hat (RHAT), Raleigh, NC - Last year the company added 51,000 customers seeking support for the open-source OS, while renewing 99 of its 100 largest clients.

3. Apple Computer (AAPL), Cupertino, CA – In 2005, Apple introduced the $199 iPod Nano and the $499 Mac Mini computer. The debuts added $6.4 billion to sales without putting a dent in profit margins.

4. SanDisk (SNDK), Sunnyvale, CA – When iPod’s success cut into its sales of memory chips to makers of MP3 players, SanDisk started making its own. It’s now the No. 2 player. More than 150,000 retailers sell its memory cards for digital cameras.

5. ValueClick (VCLK), Westlake Village, CA - The Internet ad market grew by $12.5 billion last year, a 30 percent jump from 2004. Ad seller ValueClick was even hotter, outpacing the market with well-timed acquisitions.

6. Palomar Medical Technologies (PMTI), Burlington, MA – Palomar makes light-pulsing gear that zaps unwanted hair, age spots, spider veins, and other skin blemishes. Sales of its $100,000 StarLux systems—significantly more powerful than previous models, more than quadrupled in 2005
7. aQuantive (AQNT), Seattle, WA - In just a few years, it’s become the No. 2 online ad-industry conglomerate behind Digitas (No. 54). In 2004 it acquired interactive-marketing agency Razorfish, combining it with its Avenue A agency to double sales of marketing services.

8. LifeCell (LIFC), Branchburg, NJ - LifeCell’s 2005 gains mainly reflect a 74 percent spike in sales of AlloDerm, which surgeons use as material for rejection-proof tissue grafts.

9. Gilead Sciences (GILD), Foster City, CA - Amid fears of an avian flu pandemic, Gilead a healthy new revenue stream, from Tamiflu, the antiviral drug it developed a decade ago. Even more growth came from sales of HIV medication.

10. Clinical Data (CLDA), Newton, MA - In August the company launched the fastest blood analyzer on the market, capable of performing 570 tests an hour. Acquisitions to expand into genetic testing accounted for its loss in 2005.

For the fourth consecutive year, California led the pack with the most companies on this year’s B2 100 list with 41, up from 32 in 2005, followed by Massachusetts with 10, New York with six, New Jersey and Washington each with five, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Texas with three, and Florida and Georgia with two companies. Eight states had single entries on the list, with four international companies making this year’s list, including two companies from China and one each from Israel and Russia.

To find the B2 100, Business 2.0 screened a universe of more than 2,000 tech companies that have been publicly traded on a U.S. stock exchange for at least three years, have a market capitalization of at least $50 million, and have had a positive operating cash flow over the past 12 months. Zacks Investment Research of Chicago ranked the resulting list using four financial criteria: growth in revenue, profit, operating cash flow during the past three years, and 12-month stock return as of December 31, 2005. Cash flow growth counts for 40 percent of a company’s ranking. Each other criteria counts for 20 percent.

The complete list of the Business 2.0’s “Fastest-Growing Technology Companies” as well as select content from the June issue is currently available online at www.Business2.com. Additional content will be posted throughout the month of June.

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Andrew Palladino

Director, Communications Business 2.0

Time Inc

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