Business / Technology

Brier Dudley offers a critical look at technology and business issues affecting the Northwest.

Seattle fares pretty well in Fortune magazine’s new listing of the world’s most admired companies.

Two of the top five companies are based here, including third place Amazon.com and fifth place Starbucks.

Fortune last year named Jeff Bezos “businessperson of the year” so Amazon’s ranking isn’t too surprising.

The magazine uses a survey firm to ask executives, directors and analysts to rate companies based on criteria such as investment value and social responsibility. There were 3,800 respondents this year, the 30th anniversary of the annual listing.

Topping this year’s list is Apple, followed by Google, which Seattle can partly claim since it has such a huge presence here.

Eighth place Berkshire Hathaway is supporting the Gates Foundation, through Warren Buffett’s philanthropic pledge, and ninth place Walt Disney runs its interactive platform services from a big office in downtown Seattle.

Nordstrom ranks 16th on the list and first among general merchandisers, followed by Microsoft at 17th and sixth among computer software companies. Costco is 23rd and Boeing is 26th. Altogether Washington has five of the 50 companies. California has eight and New York has six.

Fortune used to heap praise on Microsoft and it still makes this year’s list of top 10 tech companies. But the magazine’s admiration is now muted.

“As users become more accustomed with Windows’ presence across multiple platforms, the company is expecting to have solid, if not spectacular results,” Fortune said in its squib on Microsoft.

Here are the top 10 companies on the list: