Greece's largest mobile-phone company ranks 80 on its first appearance in the BusinessWeek’s IT 100 list this year. Cosmote has continued its expansion into Eastern Europe with the purchase of mobile operators in Romania, Bulgaria, and Macedonia, and plans to take over Germanos, a Greek mobile-phone retailer with an extensive network of Eastern European stores.

Chief Executive Evangelos Martigopoulos recently signed a 1.6 billion US dollars deal to take over Germanos.

Cosmote places 6 worldwide as far as the return on equity is concerned, following Amazon.com, Dell, BT Group, Accenture and Nextel Partners, and ranks 65 due to the shareholders’ profits.

The companies were ranked on four criteria: return on equity, shareholder return and revenue growth, and total revenues.

The group Cosmote boasts over 8.8 million customers in South -Eastern Europe and operates in Greece, Albania, FYROM, Bulgaria, and Romania. Cosmote Romania launched in 2005 and it reached 500 units and over 9,000 sale points. After the first four months, Cosmote boasted over 275,000 customers.

In Q1 2006, Cosmote Romania recorded losses of 19.1 million while the group Cosmote registered 75.2 million Euros profit, up 0.8 % vs. Q1 in 2005.