One such EDA company, Magma Design Automation Inc., has been tremendously profitable for Bechtolsheim, with his stake in the company being valued around $60 million.

"Because of the bank ad, the first issue was tremendously profitable," he said.

"In the right hands," he said, "the center can be a tremendously profitable venture."

"The local market is not tremendously profitable in TV," said Anthony J. Aurichio, Arbitron's president.

With Eli Whitney's introduction of "teeth" in his cotton gin to comb out the cotton and separate the seeds, cotton became a tremendously profitable business, creating many fortunes in the Antebellum South.

Those two sectors are very different; online gaming is growing quickly but remains risky, while the used game business is more mature but remains tremendously profitable.

While tremendously profitable, the show isn't nearly overexposed enough; hence its continued success as the zaniest Zeitgeist on prime time.

While Wii sales are down, the system and the games have been tremendously profitable for Nintendo.

It was - at least at first - tremendously profitable, which naturally meant that Wall Street firms wanted their share.

Not all customers are equal, it turns out: some are tremendously profitable, while others, like the guy who calls customer service six times a day to check his account balance, cost more than they're worth.