RUNNERS-UP FORM STRONG SECOND 10 INDEX.

Byline: Chris J. Parker Business Editor

Like Cinderella's stepsisters, scores of companies went to the ball but didn't come away with the big prize - admission into the Valley's Big 10.

But unlike those stepsisters, the 10 companies that finished 11 through 20 in the voting look pretty good too. So good, in fact, we've created a second index just for them; we call it, appropriately enough, the Valley's Second 10.

What separates these 10 from the Valley's Big 10? Besides a few votes, not much. As with the Big 10, most members of the Second 10 dominate their industry. As with the Big 10, most members of the Second 10 are well-known and extremely large.

It could be said, however, that the members of the Second 10 are not quite as big and not quite as dominant as the companies that comprise the Big 10. The Walt Disney Co., for example, was one of the top vote-getters in the Second 10. It obviously is one of the world's largest media companies, but shareholders of Time Warner, News Corp. or the soon-to-be-merged Viacom-CBS will be happy to tell you that Disney is not the dominant media company.

Still, they make an impressive list. Without further delay, here's the Valley's Second 10, in order of votes received:

Home Depot The nation's leading home improvement retailer, it dominates the industry. Its largest competitor, Lowe's Co., has a market capitalization approximately one-fifth the size of Home Depot's.

The Walt Disney Co.: Shareholders of the Burbank-based media giant have had a tough 16 months, watching shares fall from more than $42 to the high $20s. Still, as people say when trying to justify such a loss in market value, this company will still be in business 10 years from now, which is something shareholders of a lot of Internet companies can't say with certainty.

Amgen: Thousand Oaks-based Amgen is the world's largest biotech company, and has produced two drugs that generate more than $1 billion in revenue annually.

General Electric: Want a diversified portfolio? Many investors say GE alone is diversity enough. The company has operations in almost every industry, from media to financial services to industrial manufacturing.

Pfizer: Sure, Viagra gave Pfizer shares a, uh, boost. But Pfizer isn't a one-drug wonder; it's also the company behind BenGay, Visine, Norvasc and Zithromax.

MCI WorldCom: The result of a merger between long-distance telephone giant MCI and WorldCom, an upstart telecom company, it's still the second-largest long-distance provider, but is also a leader in Internet access for both the business and consumer markets.

Sun Microsystems: Sun is the leading manufacturer of UNIX-based workstation computers and servers for corporate computer networks. It also is the owner of Java, a programming language that can run on any kind of computer.

eBay: The No. 1 auctioneer on the Internet has had some highly publicized gaffes, including occasional power outages and the attempted auction of human body parts. But it's still No. 1 and, unlike most online retailers, it's showing a profit.

Yahoo!: One of the first Internet ``brands,'' Yahoo has morphed from a list of sites to an Internet portal that's the first stop for millions of people surfing the Web. It, too, actually has posted quarterly profits, something few of its competitors have managed to do.

Oracle: The nation's largest software maker not named Microsoft, Oracle has focused its efforts on database management systems. It recently refocused its business so that customers - and staff members - can access Oracle products online.

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BOX: The Valley's Second 10