Tech Hot Growth 50

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com/ticker/' rel='ticker'>AMAT), Teradyne (TER), and Kulicke & Soffa (KLIC), which all made the Tech Hot Growth ranking. And all those chips moving through the market? They were good news for electronics distributor Avnet (AVT), No. 39, which saw its revenues increase 25% over the past 12 months, to $14.6 billion.

The companies that make and sell the chips had a harder time. Graphics chip supplier Nvidia (NVDA) placed highest among dedicated chip companies at No. 14, with sales that grew 22% and profits that grew by 54%. Others included wireless chip suppliers Qualcomm (QCOM) and Texas Instruments (TXN). But the general outlook for chips is turning south heading into 2007. That huge buildup in the first half of 2006 has left a lot of unsold inventory going into 2007. Market analysts are saying that sales will be slow through the first half of the year before things begin to heat up again heading into 2008.

Beyond the Chip Wars

But the list wasn't all about chips. Consumers are clearly crazy about buying electronics. And whether they're buying them online or in person, they're using their credit and debit cards. And for every swipe of a magnetic striped card, there's a payment processor collecting a few pennies, nickels, or dimes as the case may be, millions of times a day. Three of these companies made the list: Alliance Data Systems (ADS), Heartland Payment Systems (HPY), and Verifone Holdings (PAY).

Biotechnology companies also grew nicely in 2006. Take Gilead Sciences (GILD), which saw sales grow 53%, to $2.7 billion, and had a major new drug for HIV treatments approved by the Food & Drug Administration, while Cephalon (CEPH), Genentech (DNA), Celgene (CELG), and ImClone Systems (IMCL) all made the list too. So did wireless service providers such as NII Holdings (NIHD), aka Nextel International, and Sprint Nextel (S).

Five years after the technology bubble burst, the industry is finding growth much harder to come by. These companies, however, make it clear that innovation, execution, and determination can go a long way toward making today feel like the sector's good old days.

Click here for a slide show of the top 10 companies.

Hesseldahl is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.