Pedals to the Metal - ' How We Ranked the '
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How We Ranked the Top 50
Only public software companies that generated more than $10 million in revenue in the calendar years 2004 and 2005 were considered.
Public companies report their finances on varying schedules, and where possible, time periods were normalized for a better comparison of revenue growth.
For companies whose fiscal years deviated from the calendar year by more than one quarter—that is, those whose fiscal years ended in April, May, June or July—we calculated annual revenue for the 12 months that ended the closest to Dec. 31. For example, Oracle's fiscal year ends May 30; we compared its revenue for the periods that ended Nov. 30, 2005 and 2004.
Companies were required to derive the majority of their revenue from software related businesses, which excludes I.T. consulting and services firms and companies that are primarily content providers. That criterion also excluded companies with major non-software businesses, such as IBM, which sold $15.1 billion worth software in 2005. In addition, video game publishers were omitted from the list, because the focus of the survey is on business software.
Projects: Management 
