Canada's Top 300 Tech Companies   |  March 18, 2008  

Backbone and the Branham Group deliver
the Branham300, the authoritative roundup
of Canada’s top-performing tech companies

By Jessica Collins and Wayne Gudbranson

2007 was a record-setting year for Canadian Information and Communication Technology companies, as successful mergers and acquisitions dominated the news. While the big fish in the pond have not yet had their fill of the little fish, they have moved onto consuming one another, as with the acquisition of Hummingbird by Open Text. This trend is already evident in 2008, as Telus prepares for the final stages of the acquisition of Emergis. Meanwhile, Constellation Software finalized a remarkable 11 acquisitions in fiscal 2007.

For the first time in 30 years the Canadian dollar closed above the American dollar, which had a significant effect on Canadian industry. Peaking on Nov. 7, 2007, the Canadian dollar sold at a remarkable $1.10 against the U.S. dollar, well above parity. As a result, the cost of exports to the United States increased dramatically in a short period of time, adversely affecting the Canadian economy. The ICT sector in Canada surged on despite this setback. Industry Canada reports that both the services and manufacturing sub-sectors of the ICT industry have been outperforming the corresponding overall Canadian services and manufacturing industries since 2002 and 2005 respectively.

The Branham300 rankings saw a great deal of change in 2007, resulting from increased merger and acquisition activity among Canada’s biggest players and IPOs from a number of new participants. In fiscal 2007, acquisition activity resulted in the loss of four major players listed among the Top 30 on the 2007 Top 250. In total, 21 companies from last year’s list with combined revenues of $4.57 billion in fiscal 2006 were either acquired or ceased relative operations. This year’s listing comprises 43.6 per cent private companies and 56.4 per cent public companies with combined total revenues of $64.4 billion, a 1.55 per cent and $1 billion decrease from last year’s total, mainly attributed to acquisition and consolidation activity.

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