We don’t often cover straight business news here at The Flickcast, but this one is pretty amazing. Sure, as Apple fans, we expected it to happen eventually, but not quite this quickly. As of yesterday, Apple, Inc.’s market capitalization now exceeds that of longtime “friendly” rival Microsoft.
Yes, you read that right. Apple is now worth more than Microsoft. As of the close of market yesterday, Apple’s total share value stood at $222.5 billion, while Microsoft was at $219.53 billion. What does this mean? Well, it means that in terms of market capitalization (determined by multiplying all outstanding shares by their value) the only company based in the U.S. that’s more valuable than Apple is Exxon, who’s market cap is at $278 billion.
Although this news is pretty impressive, it’s not entirely due to the awesomeness of Apple. In fact, it probably has more to do with Microsoft’s problems than Apple’s successes. Recently, Apple’s market cap has grown by less than $10 billion, while Microsoft’s has shrunk by almost $40 billion.
So, even though Apple is doing many things right, obviously Microsoft is doing more things wrong — or it is at least perceived that way by investors. But no matter how you look at it, the news is still pretty impressive. Made even more so by the fact that we can still remember a time, not that long ago, when most business stories about Apple were discussing its impending death. Nice work Mr. Jobs. Nice work indeed.
