by Catlin Hogan

Created on: August 05, 2008

As the use of the internet became more and more popular in the late nineties, Wall Street seemed to reap the benefits from the tech stocks. Many people had their life change when at one time it looked like some of these companies could have been doomed to drown in red ink.

#1 Google Inc (GOOG) When the company first came to be, Larry Page and Sergey Brin never expected for this company to someday be traded for nearly $600 per share. When Google was incepted on the NASDAQ Composite in 1999, many don't know that it never would have made it if it wasn't for a $25 million financial equity from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

#2 Apple Inc (APPL) Steve Jobs owes everything he has to his top competitor, Bill Gates. If it wasn't for Bill Gates keeping than Macintosh around for the healthy competition, Steve Jobs and Apple Inc would be six feet under. Trading at approximately $180 per share in July of 2008, the company made the majority of its gains from its original $3 inception when they launched the infamous iPod and opened Apple Retail Stores around the country and around the world back at the turn of the century.

#3 Poker Tek (PTEK) Now some are very for and some very against this company. This technology will someday put every poker dealer in the world out of work. It will speed up play and it will make poker just like everything else in casino, automated. Now while this company has only been around for a few years, it has had significant gains already, jumping over $6 per share to trade over four hundred per cent over its inception price.

#4 Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (POT) Breaking away from the technology stocks for a moment, this company is providing innovation in many areas of life. Based out of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, this company has been around for nearly thirty five years, started in 1975 by the Saskatchewan Government as a Crown Investment; it became publicly traded in 1989 on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. Over the past twenty years, it has become the third highest equity traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

#5 Imperial Oil Ltd (IMO) One of Canada's top crude oil producers, this company may not be trading high now, but during the climb of oil over the last decade, Imperial was a sure bet if you traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and it has been that way since first being publicly traded. As oil and gas continue to rise, Imperial will continue to be a sure bet with a the development of the Alberta oil sands.

While there were many companies from many sectors that deserve praise, these five are very worthy of being named the top five investments of the last ten years.

Learn more about this author, Catlin Hogan.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.