Crains New York - May 21, 2012 - (Page 13)

B I G G E S T C O M PA N I E S ➚ 5 tough years for top NYC firms Great Recession leaves a lasting mark on most and overcomes a few BY AARON ELSTEIN As dawn broke on Sept. 20, 2007, Sam Molinaro, chief financial officer of investment bank Bear Stearns, was at last starting to feel good again after a rough summer. True,he had some grim news to report publicly that morning: His firm’s third-quarter earnings had plummeted 62% in another sign of how deeply Bear was exposed to the spiraling subprime mortgage crisis. But just a month earlier, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson had reassured the nation, boldly predicting that any damage to the broader economy from the mortgage mess would be “contained.” More important, the Dow Jones industrial average OF THE 10 had recently largest surviving regained its companies mojo and was racing upemploy more ward again to than in 2007 what still stands as its all-time high—the 14,165 pinnacle it hit early the next month. As Mr. Molinaro spoke to investors around the world that morning from Bear’s new Madison Avenue headquarters, his message was full of hope. “We expect to see a substantial recovery in mortgage and credit trading revenues,” he proclaimed on a conference call. “We think the worst is largely behind us.” Nearly five years later, one thing is clear: The “worst” hadn’t yet even begun.The lingering impact of the crash that came in 2008 and grew to become the Great Recession is clearly evident in many of the names and numbers on this year’s Crain’s list of the largest publicly traded companies in the New York area. Most notably, gone are several once-great enterprises that loomed large on the list five years ago, venerable names including Bear Stearns, INSIDE Largest public companies, ranked by annual revenues PAGE 15 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM/LISTS ON THE WEB The whole shebang: Our complete list of the area’s 250 biggest public companies, plus performance data @ TITAN OF TECH 6,180 $6B PATENTS awarded IBM in 2011, a one-year record for any company ANNUAL R&D budget (twice Apple’s) $1B PROFITS generated by IBM labs’ products and ideas annually 100% newscom FIVE-YEAR RISE in IBM share price (three times Google’s) OUT OF JEOPARDY: The televised triumph of IBM’s Watson supercomputer sent the right signals. 6 IBM takes starring role as a tech hero 101-year-old giant’s results put many youngsters to shame BY AARON ELSTEIN See FIVE on Page 14 One of the hottest centers of scientific and technological innovation on earth sits about an hour north of the city. It sure doesn’t look the part, though. The faded modernist building looks vaguely reminiscent of the old TWA terminal at Kennedy airport, which, as it turns out, was designed by the same architect back in the early 1960s. It’s also in such an isolated corner of Westchester County that the supersmart folks who work inside the sprawling building complain that their cellphone calls routinely get dropped on the woodsy lanes surrounding it. But don’t be fooled. Since the center moved up from its original home on the Columbia University campus in the 1960s, a stream of products have been developed there that today are woven deep into the fabric of everyday life. They include the computer disk drive, the chips that make video games possible and the technique of Lasik eye surgery—just nothing quite as sexy as the iPad. It’s also true that the company that pays for all this groundbreaking research has been around for so long that it’s easy to take it for granted and to forget about its key role in making New York the nation’s biggest tech hot spot after Silicon Valley. Such is life at IBM. Of course, “innovative” is the last word that applies to a lot of what the company,still formally known as International Business Machines, does. The majority of its approximately $100 billion in annual revenue comes from consulting, software maintenance and other vital but mundane businesses. But in many ways the spiritual heart of the global enterprise beats in IBM’s Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, the place where the company constantly redefines the meaning of “cutting edge” in the tech world. The figures tell the tale. Big Blue has been awarded more patents than anybody else for 19 straight years, and the 6,180 it pulled in last year was the most ever by a single See IBM on Page 19 May 21, 2012 | Crain’s New York Business | 13 http://WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM/LISTS

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - May 21, 2012

Crain's New York - May 21, 2012
Contents
Council Defies Mayor, Scares Business Leaders
Renegade Ceo Bucks Albany to Save His Hospital
Back to JPMorgan Chase’s Woes Have Some Local Bank Rivals Circling. in the Markets.
New York, New York
Hopes Rising Along B’klyn Waterfront in Sunset Park
Why Charlie Rangel Could Lose His Seat
Small Business
Viewpoint
Ibm Inside Big Blue’s Brain Trust, Which Pulled in More Than 6,180 Patents Last Year, the Most Ever by a Single Company. No Wonder the Stock Price Has More Than Doubled in the Past Five Years.
The List Our Annual Review of the New York Area’s Largest Publicly Held Companies, Ranked by Their 2011 Revenues.
What’s Up (And Down) at News Corp., Cbs, Bed Bath & Beyond, Vornado Realty, Mastercard, Jones Group, Revlon and Others.
For the Record
Classifieds
Real Estate Deals
The Week on the Web
Matchmakers Find Their Own Chemistry
Anne Fisher Tapping Into Human Emotions Pays Dividends
Hot Jobs
Executive Moves
Movers & Shakers Real Estate Veteran’s Surprising Switch
Gael Greene Dragonfly Lands on UES

Crains New York - May 21, 2012