Amazon

CEO: Jeff Bezos

Dec. 30, 2016: $749.87

June 30, 2017: $968.00

Change: +29.09%

The big news in the ever-expanding Amazon universe this year was the June announcement of a blockbuster deal for Amazon to acquire grocery retailer Whole Foods for $13.4 billion.

On the IT side, Amazon Web Services continued its astounding growth in the first quarter ended March 31, reporting 43 percent growth in AWS revenue to $3.66 billion and generating $890 million in profit – that despite a number of price cuts during the quarter.