The Kindle continues to buoy earnings at the online purveyor of books and just about everything else. For the first time last year, the sale of Kindle books surpassed paperback sales -- for every 100 paperbacks the company sold in 2010, it sold 115 on the Kindle. Overall, sales rose 40% to $34.2 billion in 2010. That success helped keep Amazon on this list for the third year running, though it fell 15 spots from last year.
Fortune's annual roster of high performers reveals the promising saplings that are rising in a difficult economy and some stalwarts that deliver year after year.
