Top 25 Software Companies   |  March 18, 2008  

 

 

The Canadian software industry underwent a number of changes in 2007 in the name of consolidation, with large ICT players looking to expand into new market niches. Acquisition activity through 2007 resulted in a much different Top 25 compared to last year’s list.

The Top 25 Software Companies generated total revenues of $3.295 billion in 2007, a 1.21 per cent decrease from last year’s listed companies. However, remarkable growth rates (in excess of 10 per cent) were reported by 17 of the 25 firms on this year’s list.

This year’s Top 25 Software Companies realized 15.91 per cent year-over-year revenue growth, up from $2.84 billion in 2006. The cut-off revenue figure for the Top 25 Software Companies has risen this year to $32 million, up from $27.2 million last year.

Four of last year’s Top 25 companies were acquired or relocated in fiscal 2006: Hummingbird was acquired by Open Text (formerly ranked third on the list), Cryptologic moved its head office to Ireland, Longview was acquired by Exact Software and Whitehill was acquired by Skywire Software. This created space for newcomers to the category such as Emergis, Platform Computing and Sigma Systems.

The composition of the Top 5 remains otherwise unchanged. These firms exhibited significant growth in 2007 — notably Open Text and Corel with 45.44 per cent and 39.96 per cent year-over-year growth, respectively. Cognos, with 11.6 per cent growth over fiscal 2007 and $967.6 million in revenues, was nevertheless able to retain the number one position.

Significant activity is also observed at the bottom of this year’s list, as two newcomers and four seasoned participants, each with noteworthy growth rates, were able to knock out some long-standing Top 25 Software Companies.

Gemcom exhibited the highest year-over- year growth of the Top 25 Software Companies at 93.77 per cent. The mining productivity solutions company attributes this success to new economies of scale achieved following the July 2006 acquisition of Surpac Minex Group Sigma Systems, whose focus is the design, development and deployment of Operations Support Systems (OSS) service management solutions, exhibited the second highest growth at 74.8 per cent. 2007 was a busy year for Sigma Systems, as the firm was awarded new contracts by major players such as TELUS, as well as the availability of Sigma SMP Release 4.0.

The other companies between positions 21 and 25 realized between 18.09 and 93.77 per cent growth. High industry growth will continue to fuel M&A activity among the ICT sector’s major players into 2008.

Software Companies represent 38 per cent of this year’s Top 250, down from 42 per cent of the listing last year. Fifteen of the Top 25 firms are from Ontario (60 per cent), as are 42.71 per cent of all the software companies noted in the Top 250.

Firms from Quebec, B.C. and Manitoba make up the rest of the Top 25 Software Companies, with 28 per cent, eight per cent and four per cent representation, correspondingly. The provincial distribution of software companies in the Top 250 is much different, with Quebec and B.C. having an equal share of companies on the list at 21.88 per cent, while 8.33 per cent are from Alberta.





Last year's list

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