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Beginning here are brief descriptions of companies appearing at or near the tops of the tables in this section. They were written by Bob Bedolla, a freelance writer in San Francisco, and are based on research from Hoover's Handbook and Bloomberg News.
More information about these companies and descriptions of other California companies are available from the sources listed on Page 4.
Aames Financial Corp. (ticker symbol: AAM), Los Angeles: Provides home mortgage equity loans to individuals who cannot easily get financing from traditional lenders. About 50% of its loans are purchased from other financial institutions.
ABM Industries Inc. (ABM), San Francisco: The largest provider of janitorial services in North America. It also maintains air-conditioning units, elevators and parking lots. Its clients are office building and factory owners and public institutions that want to outsource maintenance. Major clients include Bank of America offices and branches, the World Trade Center in New York and the Sears Tower in Chicago. Janitorial services account for about 60% of sales.
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), San Jose: Makes desktop publishing software. Its products include the well-known programs Adobe Photoshop (photographic image software), PageMaker (page layout software) and PostScript (page description language and interpreter).
Advanced Fibre Communications Inc. (AFCI), Petaluma: Produces switches that allow telephone and cable TV companies and other telecom providers to provide a low-cost method of delivering voice, video and data signals to nonurban service areas. The switch systems have been sold to hundreds of phone companies worldwide.
Advanced Marketing Services Inc. (ADMS), San Diego: Sells business books, bestsellers, children's books, gift books and mass-market paperbacks to membership warehouse clubs such as major customers Costco and Wal-Mart's Sam's Club. AMS has operations in Canada, Mexico and Britain. It also operates more than 10 outlet stores and publishes a small number of titles through its Thunder Bay Press.
Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc. (ATIS), La Jolla: Produces living human tissue for therapeutic use in the treatment of burns and slow-to-healing wounds. Its primary product is Dermagraft, which is used to treat severe burns and ulcers. It has many products in various stages of development and intended to be used for transplantation, tissue repair and blood vessel replacement.
Affymetrix Inc. (AFFX), Santa Clara: A leader among a small number of companies...