7 Fastest Growing Tech Companies Of 2012


#4 IPG Photonics

2012 Fastest-Growing rank: 9

Previous rank: N.R.

CEO: Valentin Gapontsev

Valentin Gapontsev founded the company in Russia in 1990. Now headquartered in Oxford, Massachusetts, the company operates internationally. IPG has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Germany, Russia and Italy. It provides high power fiber lasers and fiber amplifiers that are revolutionizing performance and utility in a remarkable array of materials processing, telecommunications, medical and other advanced applications.

The sales grew 59% year-over-year to $474.5 million in 2011, and the company expects that trend to continue in the years to come.

 

#3 Apple

2012 Fastest-Growing rank: 8

Previous rank: 21

CEO: Tim Cook

 

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple on April 1, 1976 in Cupertino, California.

The company's best-known hardware products are the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Its software includes the OS X and iOS operating system; the iTunes media browser; and the iLife and iWork creativity and production suites. Apple is the world's third-largest mobile phone maker after Samsung and Nokia.

Earnings for 2011 hit $38.6 billion on revenues of $142 billion. Recently, Apple became the most valuable company of all time when its market capitalization hit $623 billion in August.