What happened to these three companies such that they're no longer considered the top of NASDAQ's stocks?

Tech-enthusiastic stock-watchers, take note. Per its annual tradition, NASDAQ is re-ranking its NASDAQ-100 index to better capture, "the 100 largest non-financial stocks listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market." And that brings with it a few changes for a few more well-known stocks in the market.

Specifically, the NASDAQ is dropping Netflix, RIM, and Electronic Arts from its top-100 list. And among those being added, the two big "household name" tech companies are Facebook and Western Digital.

So, why the shifting?

Netflix

HBO licensing that didn't quite pan out, analyst downgrades, disappointing quarterly subscriber additions, worries that the company might have to pay more for quality content, large drops in future predictions for Netflix's ability to grow its subscriber base the list goes on. But that's not to say that Netflix is completely down and out.

If anything, the company seems to have sprung back from its less-than-stellar fall  and a September drop in the company's stock price that nearly reached its 52-week lows  on the wings of announcements that investor Carl Icahn was taking up a position in the stock and that Netflix was able to reach a deal with Disney for exclusive streaming rights come 2016.

RIM

It's been much assumed throughout 2012 that the smartphone manufacturer would either up and die or get partitioned and sold as a result of its struggles  which include a 30-percent drop in revenue during the company's second fiscal quarter. As one analyst put it in May of this year: "RIM's Q1 warning shows its business is deteriorating faster than expected."

To quote another: "RIM is now well set on the trajectory we have been anticipating since 2009: exodus of high-end users compensated by continued but slowing growth in the low end [and] collapse of pricing power."

That said, some pundits and stock-pickers alike are looking forward toward the company's release of its BlackBerry 10 OS, which many consider to be RIM's "last chance" for turning itself around and regaining Blackberry market share and momentum.

Electronic Arts

You know something's wrong when it takes just about six months for a stock to shed roughly 40 percent of its value. Hello, Electronic Arts circa June of 2012: Possibly propelled by, in part, the failure of the company's six-years-in-the-making MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, to gain enough traction to warrant its sky-high development costs.

There's also John Riccitiello, Electronic Arts' CEO, who has taken a little heat for what's presumed to be his inability to perfectly steer the company through a transformation plan that's, "presently in year five of a three-year transformation project that's actually going to take seven years," as described by GamesIndustry's Rob Fahey.

Electronic Arts' stock did enjoy a bit of a boost in August  following rumors that the company might be looking to sell for a cost of around $20 per share.

For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).