Itron noted as rising tech firm

A Liberty Lake-based utility metering company this year shot up the ranks of Business 2.0 magazine’s list of the 100 fastest-growing technology businesses, reaching the No. 17 spot.

Itron Inc. jumped up from No. 97 on the annual list, producing 30 percent revenue growth annualized over three years and a 29 percent stock return last year, according to the magazine’s Web site.

F5 Networks Inc. of Seattle, which recently announced plans to expand the office for its Liberty Lake hardware-development group, also made the list at No. 9. The company had annualized revenue growth of 51.3 percent and a 30 percent stock return.

Itron, which bills itself as North America’s leading supplier of automated meter-reading systems and electricity meters, recently bought Actaris Metering Systems, a Luxembourg-based company that makes gas and water meters. The combined company has more than 8,500 employees, 8,000 utility customers across 60 countries and 33 manufacturing plants.

Spokeswoman Christina Kelly said the acquisition might have boosted Itron’s numbers, but the ranking is more important as an affirmation of smart- and automatic-metering products offered by the company. More utilities are building smart grids to reduce power usage, and the company can “help utilities do more using less,” especially in light of concerns about global climate change, she said.

“It’s been kind of exciting for us,” she said.

Founded in 1977, Itron posted revenues of $644 million last year — an increase of more than 16 percent.

F5’s Liberty Lake group has expanded since it started in spring 2000 with about 10 hardware engineers. It now employs 62 people, 23 of them added since August 2005, according to news reports. It plans to add 30,000 square feet to its 15,000-square-foot facility starting next month.

The 11-year-old company sells electronic devices that sit between computer and cell phone users and business’ online applications, managing data to keep applications secure, available and speedy.

“Business applications are moving from the PC to the Web, and that means more and more companies are depending on F5’s appliances to smooth the transition online by balancing Internet traffic on their corporate servers,” according to the magazine.

F5 has 1,159 employees, and its workforce grew by nearly 27 percent in 2006, according to the magazine.

It posted revenues of $394 million last year.

The company will probably add another 60 to 80 workers this quarter, said Dan Matte, senior vice president of marketing and business development for F5. It’s not clear how many of those will be added in this region.

“We’re relatively unknown on the local front, but you know, we’ve been doing quite well,” he said. “We hope to get more and more people familiar with us.”

F5 ranked 18th last year.

Business 2.0 reviewed “more than 2,000 tech companies that have been publicly traded on a U.S. stock exchange for at least three years, have a market capitalization of at least $50 million, and have had positive operating cash flow over the past 12 months,” according to CNNMoney.com.

Zacks Investment Research of Chicago ordered the results according to revenue growth, profit, operations cash flow over three years and year-long stock returns as of Dec. 31, according to the Web site.

The ranking will appear in the magazine’s June issue, expected to hit newsstands on Monday, the Web site said.