TIME MAGAZINE NAMES EUROPE'S 50 HOTTEST TECH FIRMS

TIME MAGAZINE NAMES EUROPE'S 50 HOTTEST TECH FIRMS  
10:24 20.05.02  

TIME MAGAZINE NAMES EUROPE'S 50 HOTTEST TECH FIRMS

London (ots) - In this week's issue (on sale May 20), TIME
magazine reveals its list of Europe's 50 hottest tech firms. The Hot
List is featured in TIME Digital, a quarterly report covering the
latest developments in the trends, products and people shaping the
world of information technology.

TIME's third annual Hot Companies list identifies Europe's
technology firms with the most innovative products and services and
the most promising business models. The editors of TIME talked to
venture capitalists, industry experts and entrepreneurs across Europe
to discover the tech firms with the greatest potential.

This year's list includes Acambis (UK) for its headline-generating
$428 million contract to produce 155 million doses of smallpox
vaccines for the U.S. government; Infinion Technologies (Germany) for
its innovative smart cards, which have seen an increase in demand
following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.; Digital Bridges
(UK) for building the technology and developing partnerships that are
helping to kick-start the global wireless entertainment industry;
Smart Fuel Cell for its revolutionary technology that aims to replace
the batteries in laptops and camcorders with micro fuel cells.

Other Hot List companies:

BIOTECH
* Actelion (Switzerland) has developed the new drug Tracleer, for
the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension.
* Ark Therapeutics (UK) develops gene-based medicines for the
treatment of cancer, vascular and circulatory system diseases and has
six new products in development.
* Astex Technology (UK) revealed the 3-D structure of a key enzyme
involved in drug metabolism, a discovery expected to lead to better
understanding of how drugs work in the body.
* Cambridge Antibody Technology (UK) develops human monoclonal
antibodies as treatment for disease and has seven human therapeutic
antibodies in trials.
* Celltech (UK) has a profitable pharmaceutical business and seven
products in advanced development

SEMICONDUCTORS
* Cambridge Silicon Radio (UK) makes single-chip radio devices for
wireless communications
* STMicroelectronics (Switzerland) is the third-largest company in
the semiconductor industry, worth $6.35 billion.
* TTPCom (UK) is one of the few intellectual property-rights
companies that can offer the complete design of a mobile phone.

OPTICS
* Teem Photonics (France) is one of the first companies to
recognize that amplifier arrays can generate enormous cost savings in
networking cities.
* Intense Photonics' (UK) technology squeezes more functions into
the chips used in optical networks, helping cut costs.
* Kamelian (UK) makes semiconductor optical amplifiers that should
pave the way for the cost-efficient all-optical networks of the
future.

WIRELESS
* Anoto Group (Sweden) converts handwriting into digital
information.
* IpUnplugged (Sweden) has developed technology that allows
consumers to use the same e-mail address at work, at home and on
wireless devices.
* Network365 (Ireland) is an award-winning company that helps
carriers to deploy mobile commerce on their networks.

BUSINESS APPLICATIONS
* Autonomy (Based in UK) solves content and knowledge management
problems for corporations.
* Kiala (Belgium) provides software backbone and distribution
services to direct vendors in Europe, from catalogue retailers to
beauty companies
* SAP (Germany) after 30 years in business still turns out
products that are in great demand for making businesses more
efficient.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
* Cambridge Technology Displays (UK) is laying the groundwork for
less-power-consuming displays for mobile phones and eventually
television.

The full Hot list is available in the May 27 issue of TIME and at
www.timeeurope.com/digital.

Also in this week's issue TIME questions what fate could be worse
than prison for an alleged al-Qaeda terrorist? In the case of
Franco-Algerian radical Djamel Beghal, it's being at home with an
angry spouse.

TIME reveals that his French-born wife, Sylvie Beghal, continues
to fume at her husband for having left her in Afghanistan with their
three children last summer claiming he'd "be back in just a few
days". Beghal knew he'd be away for months, TIME reports, and after
being arrested last July in Dubai he confessed he'd been instructed
by al-Qaeda officials to head a European terror network. French
officials say Sylvie, who escaped with the children to Iran and later
France, was still visibly mad at having been lied to by Djamel,
noting that he may be better off on ice-at least until she cools off.

The European edition of TIME is published specifically for
circulation within Europe, the Middle East and Africa and offers
readers access to Time Inc.'s global resources with regional,
relevant stories. TIME is Europe's most successful weekly
newsmagazine, with a circulation of almost 630,000 across EMEA and
over 5.5 million world-wide.


ots Original Text Service: TIME Europe
Internet: www.naeurope.co.uk