TOP 250.

• Author: SCHWAB, ROBERT
• Position: Colorado businesses - Illustration - Statistical Data Included

TECH DRAGS BUSINESS TO THE BRINK

REMEMBER THE FEAR AND TREPIDATION THAT ACCOMPANIED NEW YEAR'S DAY 2000, WHEN THE NATION'S FEAR OF A WORLDWIDE COMPUTER GLITCH KEPT PEOPLE FROM TOASTING THE NEW MILLENNIUM?

Computers didn't crash that night, but the high-tech economy did that spring.

And Colorado's Top 250 public companies were dragged to a kind of economic brink during the year, a cliff they are still struggling to walk away from.

It wasn't a good year for the Top 250 in 2000.

The Colorado Biz annual list of 150 top public companies with headquarters in Colorado, ranked by revenues, showed aggregate sales growth, but profits for the group were a killer.

Eighty-eight companies posted profits of $2.7 billion for the year, but 62 on the list posted losses of $5.1 billion, for a net loss of $3.4 billion for the group.

The Top 250 is rounded out by a second list of 100 companies based outside Colorado that have a significant workforce in the state. Also ranked by revenues, those companies, too, posted sales gains, even as the nation's economy slowed to a crawl by Christmas.

Those outside companies posted an aggregate $1.834 trillion in sales for 2000 vs. $1,626 trillion in 1999 -- a 12.8 percent gain.

The top 10 Colorado sales leaders naturally included the state's largest company, Qwest Communications International Inc., but Qwest was joined by a surprisingly diverse group of familiar names that cover the gamut of industry and commerce.

Transmontaigne Inc., an oil refiner and shipper, AT&T Liberty Media, the cable TV content provider, Ball Corp., the satellite maker, and MDC Holdings Inc., the home builder, all claim spots in the top 10.

Some of those same names -- especially technology and communications companies -- also populate the list of biggest money losers, however.

Qwest was 10th from the bottom, followed again by Liberty Media, which is expected to be spun off from parent AT&T later this year. Level 3 Communications Inc. dug the deepest hole for itself. It posted the biggest loss, almost $1.5 billion.

The top 10 fastest-growing Colorado companies by sales also presents a mixed perspective, It contains both tech companies that burned through cash even as sales grew, and oil and other natural-resource producers whose economic lives grew better as prices for commodities rose during the year.

Royal Gold Inc. led the list, posting 864 percent growth in sales, and almost $4 million in profits. However, Evoke Communications Inc. and Rhythms Net-connections Inc., two tech companies that are struggling this year, posted both triple-digit growth and sizeable losses.

All in all, the 250 companies on the two lists show a breadth of commerce that dispels any notion Colorado is overly dependent on any one industry.

Most economic experts will tell you such diversity provides the best cushion against economic adversity.

The year 2001 may prove just as tough for many of these companies. We'll see how big a cushion their diversity will provide the state.

TOP 150 COLORADO-BASED PUBLIC COMPANIES COBIZ 2001 RANK COMPANY TICKER 1 Qwest Communications International Inc. Q 2 Transmontaigne Inc. TMG 3 AT&T Liberty Media LMGA 4 Bail Corp. BLL 5 Western Gas Resources Inc. WGR 6 Echostar Communications Corp. DISH 7 Mail-Well Inc. MWL 8 Coors (Adolph) RKY 9 Storage Technology Corp. STK 10 MDC Holdings Inc. MDC 11 Barrett Resources Corp. BRR 12 Newmont Mining Corp. NEM 13 DII Group Inc. DIIG 14 UnitedGlobalCom Inc. UCOMA 15 Level 3 Communications Inc. LVLT 16 Edwards J.D. & Co. JDEC 17 Forest Oil Corp. FST 18 Teletech Holdings Inc. TTEC 19 Wild Oats Markets Inc. OATS 20 Graphic Packaging International Corp. GPK 21 Atlas Air Worldwide Holding Inc. (1) CGO 22 Samsonite Corp. SAMC 23 Gart Sports Co. GRTS 24 Archstone Communities Trust ASN 25 Prologis Trust PLO 26 Apartment Investment & Management Inc. AIV 27 ICG Communications (2) ICGXQ 28 Ciber Inc. CBR 29 Katy Industries KT 30 Vail Resorts Inc. MTN 31 Coorstek Inc. CRTK 32 Coram Healthcare Corp. (3) CRHEQ 33 Time Warner Telecom Inc. TWTC 34 Titanium Metals Corp. TIE 35 Brown (Tom) Inc. TMBR 36 CSG Systems International Inc. CSGS 37 Ultimate Electronics Inc. ULTE 38 Einstein/Noah Bagel Corp. (4) ENBXQ 39 VICORP Restaurants Inc. VRES 40 Advanced Energy Industries Inc. AEIS 41 Frontier Airlines Inc. FRNT 42 EFTC Corp. (5) EFTC 43 Navigant International Inc. FLYR 44 Echo Bay Mines Ltd ECO 45 OEA Inc. OEA 46 McData Corp. MCOT 47 Stillwater Mining Co. SWC 48 Exabyte Corp. EXBT 49 Markwest Hydrocarbon Inc. MWP 50 Westport Resources Corp. WRC 51 Chateau Communities Inc. CPJ 52 Startek Inc. SRT 53 Meteor Industries Inc. METR 54 St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. MARY 55 New Era Of Networks Inc. NEON 56 Patina Oil & Gas Corp. POG 57 Carrier Access Corp. CACS 58 Convergent Communications CONV 59 American Coin Merchandising Inc. AMCN 60 Horizon Organic Holding HCOW 61 Champps Entertainment Inc. CMPP 62 T-Netix Inc. TNTX 63 Key Production Company Inc. KP 64 Black Hawk Gaming & Development Co. Inc. BHWK 65 Hallwood Energy Corp. HECO 66 Tanning Technology Corp. TANN 67 Hauser Inc. HAUS 68 Air Methods Corp. AIRM 69 Colorado Medtech Inc. CMED 70 BI Inc. (6) BIAC 71 Crown Media Holdings Inc. CRWN 72 Westmoreland Coal Co. WLB 73 Gaiam Inc. GAIA 74 Koala Corp. KARE 75 Evergreen Resources EVG COBIZ COBIZ 2000 2001 2000 SALES RANK BUSINESS DESCRIPTION RANK (THOUSANDS) 1 Telecommunications 4 $16,610,000 2 Refined petroleum, pipelines 8 5,071,354 3 Cable TV programming N/A 4,159,000 4 Aerospace, metal cans 6 3,664,700 5 Natural gas transmission, distribution 14 3,268,501 6 Cable and pay television 16 2,715,220 7 Envelopes 15 2,425,215 8 Brewery, beverages 13 2,414,415 9 Computer storage devices 11 2,060,204 10 Home builder 17 1,750,484 11 Oil and natural gas production 19 1,718,532 12 Mining 18 1,554,900 13 Printed circuit boards 21 1,339,943 14 Cable television 24 1,251,034 15 Software 31 1,185,000 16 Software manufacturer 20 1,001,065 17 Oil and natural gas production 41 913,058 18 Business services 32 885,349 19 Grocery Stores 23 838,100 20 Packaging N/A 831,405 21 Air Cargo 28 790,468 22 Luggage 25 767,685 23 Sporting goods stores 26 751,100 24 Real estate trust N/A 723,234 25 Real estate trust N/A 643,521 26 Real estate trust N/A 632,808 27 Telecommunications 34 630,000 28 Computer services 39 621,534 29 Manufacturer 29 553,249 30 Resort operator 35 553,059 31 Manufacturer 38 539,665 32 Home health-care services 30 468,820 33 Telecommunications 45 460,034 34 Metal products 33 426,798 35 Oil and natural gas 57 402,390 36 Software 43 398,895 37 Electronics retailer 42 384,983 38 Restaurants 37 375,703 39 Restaurants 40 372,047 40 Electrical and other products 61 359,782 41 Airline 55 329,820 42 Consulting services 54 327,400 43 Business travel 52 315,000 44 Gold mining 59 281,000 45 Auto parts 48 248,805 46 Computer storage switches N/A 248,686 47 Precious metals 68 225,232 48 Computer storage devices 53 221,700 49 Oil-field services 77 221,554 50 Petroleum and natural gas N/A 220,042 51 Real estate trust N/A 204,765 52 Business services 60 200,750 53 Refined oil products and distribution 67 196,800 54 Oil and natural gas production 84 190,106 55 Software 71 188,348 56 Oil and natural gas production 79 148,665 57 Telecommunications 75 148,050 58 Telecommunications 66 132,376 59 Coin-operated machines 72 129,800 60 Dairy 80 127,206 61 Restaurants N/A 109,114 62 Communications services 83 103,303 63 Petroleum and natural gas 96 99,820 64 Casino operator 78 93,218 65 Oil and natural gas production 95 82,760 66 Computer services 93 81,978 67 Pharmaceuticals 117 81,162 68 Air transport 94 75,293 69 Medical equipment 91 74,003 70 Communications equipment 87 71,921 71 Cable and pay television 122 66,816 72 Coal mining 85 65,597 73 Information retrieval services 106 60,588 74 Manufacturing 115 59,706 75 Petroleum and natural gas 144 59,128 COBIZ 1999 NET 2001 SALES % INCOME RANK (THOUSANDS) GROWTH (THOUSANDS) EMPLOYEES 1 $13,182,000 26.00% -$81,000 67,000 2 3,047,061 66.40% -37,937 508 3 3,513,000 18.40% -313,000 N/A 4 3,584,200 2.20% 68,200 11,200 5 1,896,879 72.30% 56,108 616 6 1,602,841 69.40% -621,211 11,000 7 1,848,041 31.20% 27,618 15,800 8 2,056,646 17.40% 109,617 5,850 9 2,368,231 -13.00% -1,782 7,600 10 1,565,023 11.90% 123,303 1,700 11 998,932 72.00% 27,674 231 12 1,398,927 11.10% -18,900 10,800 13 925,543 44.80% 58,382 7,900 14 719,540 73.90% -1,220,890 10,000 15 515,000 130.10% -1,455,000 6,211 16 944,231 6.00% -15,422 5,072 17 357,258 155.60% 130,608 5,072 18 604,264 46.50% 73,806 14,000 19 721,091 16.20% 12,600 8,600 20 988,391 -15.90% 25,259 5,000 21 637,081 24.10% 85,259 1,255 22 697,421 10.10% -1,842 7,200 23 681,000 10.30% 23,100 4,900 24 667,020 8.40% 462,936 2,000 25 567,392 13.40% 214,478 640 26...