Four East Valley companies make fastest-growing list

Four East Valley-based companies made the list of the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in North America compiled by the Deloitte business services firm.

Scottsdale-based Go Daddy Group, parent company of Internet domain name registrar GoDaddy.com, was the fastest-growing Arizona company to appear on the 2004 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, based on revenue growth. It ranked 35th, growing 8,274 percent in the past five years. Go Daddy ranked 92nd last year.

Also appearing on the latest list, which was announced Wednesday, are Circuit Research Labs, a Tempe-based company that makes audio processing equipment for radio and television stations, ranked 192nd; Brillian Corp., a Tempe-based producer of liquid crystal on silicon microdisplays used in high definition televisions, ranked 215th; and Time America, a Tempe-based producer of time-management software for businesses, which ranked 381st.

Time America and Circuit Research Labs appeared on the list last year, ranking 273rd and 407th respectively. Brillian, a spinoff company from LCD manufacturer Three-Five Systems, was new to the list this year.

Topping the list was Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, the most popular search engine, with revenue growth of 437,115 percent over five years. Its revenue exploded from $220,000 in 1999 to $962 million last year.

The average growth rate was 4,109 percent.

Go Daddy president Bob Parsons credited his company’s rapid expansion to an emphasis on customer service and continuous development of new products and services. Parsons founded the privately held company in 1997 using proceeds from the sale of Parsons Technology, a company he started in the mid-1980s that had developed a series of tax, financial, legal and business-productivity software programs.

In 2000, Go Daddy became an official domain name registrar sanctioned by the Internet Corporation for Assignment of Names and Numbers. The group’s family of companies consists of flagship GoDaddy.com and reseller provider Wild West Domains, both ICANN accredited registrars; Domains By Proxy, which provides private domain registration services; and Starfield Technologies, the group’s research and development arm.

To qualify for the Deloitte list, entrants must have had 1999 operating revenue of at least $50,000 in U.S. dollars or $75,000 in Canadian dollars and 2003 operating revenue of at least $1 million in either currency. They also must own proprietary technology that contributes to a significant portion of the company’s revenue or devote a major proportion of revenue to research and development of new technology.