Forbes magazine last week released its second annual listing of the 25 Fastest-Growing Big Companies, adding Amazon.com to the list for the first time.

One of the few companies to survive the dot-com era, Amazon is expanding far beyond its original origins as an online book store and is the closest thing to a tech company on the list of the top 25.

Nextel Communications, Countrywide Financial and Northrop Grumman were among the better-known companies to make the list, which requires that companies have at least $5 billion in annual revenue and have a five-year revenue growth rate of at least 23 percent.

Neither Microsoft nor Dell made the list this year despite making the list last year.

"We compile this list partly to dispel the notion that big companies don't or can't grow as fast as smaller ones," Forbes stated on its Forbes.com website.

The oil and gas sector owned the list with nine companies making the top 25 and Kinder Morgan Energy coming in at No. 1 with a five-year revenue growth of more than 94 percent and a one-year jump of more than 56 percent, Forbes reported.

Forbes predicts that health care provider Caremark would most likely move up from No. 19 this year to a higher standing on the list next year in the wake of its recent purchase of AdvancePCS.

View the complete listing of the Top 25 at
http://www.forbes.com/business/2004/04/08/cx_ld_25bigstab.html