Tesla leads ‘smartest’ companies ranking; Apple, Facebook back on list
Electric car maker Tesla Motors (TSLA) moved up to No. 1 on Massachusetts Technology Review’s 2015 “smartest companies” ranking, as gene-sequencing firm Illumina (ILMN) slipped from first place to No. 3. Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB), neither of which made the 2014 smartest companies list, were back on in the 2015 ranking at Nos. 16 and 29, respectively. The ranking of 50 smartest companies includes technology and non-tech companies. Tesla had been No. 2 in 2014. The other tech companies in the 2015 top 10 were: Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi at No. 2, Alibaba Group (BABA) No. 4, Tencent Holdings (TCEHY) No. 7, SolarCity (SCTY) No. 9 and Netflix (NFLX) at No. 10. Tech companies that made the list in 2015 but fell out of the top 10 included Google (GOOGL) and Amazon.com (AMZN). Techs that fell off the list this year included privately held Dropbox, Salesforce.com (CRM) and payments …