Aug. 10, 2001 — Three semi-related firms have made the top 10 tier of Fortune Small Business’ 100 fastest growing small company list.

The fastest small growing business in America, according to Fortune, is TranSwitch, Shelton, CT, a producer of semiconductors for telecom companies.

Cree, of Durham, NC, came in at number six. Cree makes light-emitting diodes, specializing in the blue LEDS for cell phones and vehicle dash boards.

Fortune named Elantec Semiconductor Inc., Milpitas, CA, as the eighth fastest growing small company in America. Elantec designs, manufactures, and markets high performance analog integrated circuits primarily for the video, optical storage, communications, and power management markets.

To be considered, companies had to be in business for at least three years as of Dec. 31, 2000, be publicly traded on one of the major stock exchanges, and have $200 million or less in revenue for the year 2000.

Each company was ranked based on earnings growth, revenue growth and total stock return, including dividends. The rankings were averaged to find the fastest-growers.

Transwitch topped the list with EPS growth of 317.9%, revenue growth of 75.2% and a total return of 186.3%.

“The men and women who comprise the TranSwitch team have propelled us into a leadership position by the power of their ideas and the strength of their commitment and for this I salute them and extend my personal gratitude,” said Dr. Santanue Das, TranSwitch president and CEO.

Cree’s EPS growth was 100.6%, revenue growth was 57.5% and total return was 96.4%.

Elantec ranked No.8 on the list based on earnings per share growth of 117.2%, revenue growth of 37.9%, and a total return of 107.8%.