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E-learning company Riverdeep, the winner of Ireland's Fast 50 awards, had a three-year average revenue growth of almost 14,200 percent.
In second place was NordNet from Sweden, which had a revenue growth rate of almost 12,400 percent. E-business service provider OpenShop from Germany came in third with a growth rate of almost 8,800 percent. OpenShop is currently in the midst of a merger with another German business, USU AG, which could propel its growth rate even higher for next year.
In fourth place was the Scottish company Sourcing Partnerships out of Edinburgh, which grew by 8,400 percent over the years 1998 to 2000. The average three-year revenue growth for the bottom ranked company, Netwise of Sweden, was 112 percent.
Deloitte & Touche calculated that average three-year revenue growth for the top five companies in the Fast 500 programme was 9,956 percent.
Of course Riverdeep's growth over the past three years has not been by organic means. The company went public in March 2000, near the peak of the dot.com and technology boom, and secured millions of dollars in hard cash before the technology sector began to crumble.
With that money the company made a number of acquisitions, including The Learning Company and Teacher Universe and began signing deals with US education departments at the federal, state and local level. It is worth noting that the fastest growing IT company in Europe does the bulk of its business in the US.
The company has in the past hung its success on the fact that it did not spend its cash reserves on advertising, but concentrated on developing the company and its products.
Announced in Paris on Tuesday, the Fast 500 Programme gives a glimpse into how successful many of Europe's young technology firms are. Deloitte & Touche pointed out that the average growth rate of the 500 companies in the contest was 525 percent. Karel Bakkes, Deloitte's Partner in charge of the European Technology Fast 500 Programme, said that even making the list was an incredible achievement. "Because these companies are able to produce substantial revenue growth, even during difficult economic periods, they will be the key forces behind Europe's future economic development," Bakkes said.
Other statistics from the awards showed that the three most dominant sectors were software (37 percent), communications and networking (14 percent) and Internet (12 percent). These percentages mirror the sector concentrations of companies ranked by Deloitte's US Technology Fast 500 Programme.
Geographically, the UK had the highest number of entrants with 150 companies in the Fast 500 list. France was second with 97 companies and Germany was third with 51. Despite its small size, Ireland was fourth with 43 companies listed in the European Fast 500, representing 8.6 percent of the total list.
For more information visit http://www.fast500europe.com.
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