The NASDAQ-100 (NDX) is a weighted stock market index of the largest non-financial companies in the world, and as the new year approaches, tech companies are playing musical chairs; NASDAQ has announced that Facebook will join the ranks, while Netflix, Electronic Arts, and RIM will drop from the index in 2013. The news isn't much of a surprise for Waterloo-based RIM, which has seen its stock tumble to new lows this year amid poor sales performance and gloomy projections for early next year. While the company still enjoys a strong international presence, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins acknowledged in November that RIM has "one shot" for recovery with its plan to launch BlackBerry 10 next year. Netflix has also endured a financial struggle since it segregated its DVD rental and streaming plans in 2011, and floated splitting the company in two, but the company has seen an upswing this year, reaching 25.1 million streaming subscribers in Q3 and a 10-percent increase in revenue over the prior year.

Facebook's addition comes after months of controversy following its disastrous initial public offering that saw glitches, allegations of misrepresentation about the company's value, and and a stumble in stock price on opening day. But despite Facebook's initial problems with going public, the outlook isn't dismal; the company promised investors that it's "deeply integrating monetization into our product teams in order to build a stronger, more valuable company," and its aggressive effort to innovate in advertising could back up that promise. The changes to NASDAQ's index will take effect December 24th.