Minorities Praise IBM

IBM has been ranked the top business in the country for providing opportunities to small firms owned by women and minorities. Who decided? More than 14,000 such companies that voted online in the third-annual "Top 50 Corporations for Multicultural Business Opportunities."

IBM stands to gain, too, as minority-owned businesses are potential customers, says Kenton Clarke, CEO of Div2000 .com, a services provider to minority-owned firms that hosted the vote. Other companies making the top 50 are Dell, Microsoft, and SBC Communications.