| Index of coverage | Top Ten 1. Teradyne Inc. 2. Analog Devices Inc. 3. LTX Corp. 4. EMC Corp. 5. Helix Tech. Corp. 6. ACT Manufacturing 7. Millipore Corp. 8. Talbots Inc. 9. Cytyc Corp. 10. FleetBoston Year's Best Company of year Highest Market Value Fastest Growth Biggest Stock Gain Comeback of the Year Highest Sales Contents Overall performance Banking Biotech Growth   1. ACT Manuf.   2. Provant Inc.   3. Analog Devices   4. Sapient Corp.   5. Foilmark Inc. Bulls and Bears   Bulls   1. J. Jill Group   2. Inverness Medical   3. Reebok Intl.   4. Bostonfed Bancorp   5. John Hancock   Bears   1. Aztec Tech.   2. Engage Inc.   3. CMGI Inc.   4. Telaxis Comm.   5. NaviSite Inc. Employment IPOs Profitability Sales The Globe 100 Market value 100 Sales 100 Return on equity 100 Growth 50 Highest leveraged Top employers Most productive Industry summary Biggest profits Biggest losses The Bulls The Bears Top profit margins Debt-free companies Street's darlings Street's wallflowers 2000 Mass. IPOs Recoveries Nose Dives All the charts for this year's Globe 100    | 2000 Globe 100 | Search the Globe: Today Yesterday

LTX Corp. chief executive Roger Blethen, with one of the company's chip testers, says LTX will spend 50 percent more on R&D this year. (Globe Staff Photo / Wendy Maeda) 3. LTX CORP. Timing, plus a retooling, pay off 5/22/2001     1. Teradyne Inc. 2. Analog Devices Inc. 3. LTX Corp. 4. EMC Corp. 5. Helix Tech. Corp. 6. ACT Manufacturing 7. Millipore Corp. 8. Talbots Inc. 9. Cytyc Corp. 10. FleetBoston The 2001 Globe 100 All the charts hief executive Roger Blethen is the first to admit that LTX has benefited from being on the crest of a highly cyclical industry. The semiconductor industry, and companies such as LTX that provide equipment to test computer chips, are known for pronounced boom and bust cycles. But LTX's lofty spot on The Globe 100 isn't just the result of a peaking business cycle, says Blethen, who helped cofound the company 1976 and who took the helm in 1996. Instead, LTX virtually remade itself when it scrapped a handful of disparate products and in 1998 launched its Fusion system for testing a wide array of computer chips. Since then, Blethen says, the numbers have told the story of a successful strategy. ''The measures for us that are telling,'' he says of the last fiscal year, ''is we doubled our best revenues ever, we achieved very high profit margins, and our selling, general, and administrative expenses were half of what they had ever been. ''Cyclicality alone wouldn't generate the kind of improvements you see in LTX's income statement,'' he adds. ''We're a very different company than we were.'' For the year ended July 30, 2000, LTX posted net income of $78.7 million - almost exactly what the Westwood company lost in fiscal 1998. Among the financial standouts in LTX's most recent year is a post-tax profit margin of 25.8 percent. Despite slowing market conditions, Blethen recently predicted the firm could capture two or three new customers each quarter. Meanwhile, he's sticking to his guns. ''This year,'' he says, ''we're spending 50 percent more on research and development, and we're adding to our engineering force. ''In the fast years, you race to meet customer demand, and in the slow years you charge ahead with your investments.'' JEFFREY KRASNER

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