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Despite 2001's market doldrums, and a downturn in the telecom sector, Canada's Top 100 R&D companies continued to expand their research and development spending at a torrid pace. In total, Canada's leading firms spent a total of $11.9 billion to develop new products and processes in Fiscal 2001, up from same-company spending of $11.5 billion in 2000, for an apparent year-over-year increase of 3%. However, the 2001 results are depressed by Nortel Networks' R&D spending, which dropped from $5.9 billion in Fiscal 2000 to $5.0 billion in 2001. Without Nortel in the mix, the top companies' spending would have jumped a healthy 23.3%, indicating a strong underlying performance trend. (In Fiscal 2000 the Top 100 firms grew their R&D spending by 28.5%, which was an outstanding year.)
Mirroring the healthy increase in overall spending, the research intensity (R&D spending as a percent of revenues) of the Top 100 firms (excluding Nortel), increased from 3.0% to 3.4% of revenues. Overall, this represents a growing commitment to research in most Top 100 firms, although in others it may reflect a slowing of revenue growth.
Sixty-nine (69) of the Top 100 firms saw their revenues remain the same or increase in 2001, whereas R&D increased at 72 companies. The $100 Million Club This year, 23 companies gained membership in RE$EARCH Infosource's elite "$100 Million Club", spending $100 million or more on R&D. This compares with 18 club members in Fiscal 2000. Sixteen (16 ) of the 23 companies are Canadian and 7 are foreign subsidiaries, indicating a strong showing by domestic companies. Two are crown corporations - Atomic Energy of Canada and Hydro Québec. Members of the $100 Million Club accounted for fully 77% ($9.2 billion) of Top 100 R&D spending, and a still-impressive 61% if Nortel's spending is excluded. New to the $100 Million Club in 2002 are Tembec ($152 million), Creo ($147 million), Pfizer Canada ($132 million), Ballard Power Systems ($128 million), and Cognos ($104 million).