Actually by looking at those numbers they got the honourable mention by having the most annual growth in both market value and sales combined. All it says that they did well in 04-08.

Do you consider "Doosan heavy industries" to be the fourth best company with a market cap of 5 billion $?

Also I think that list is flawed, they are not counting many chinese companies which had much bigger increase in market value than any of those companies on that list. It could be that those companies went PLC/LTD in 06 but I don't see that a valid reason not to count them.

It all depends on the criteria which one defines which is the best. For example if someone would decide that the best company is the most efficient company as in making the most profit per employee then the list of best companies would be full of small companies with less than 50 employees. That would be just as valid reasoning as what the article is using. I just can't see it the way that the best company could be bought by many companies just by their liquid assets.

But hey, I agree on that with their flawed reasoning nintendo was the best company in 04-08. Does that satisfy you?