Apple over­takes Microsoft’s record

In a report print­ed in the Wall Street Jour­nal, it was revealed this week that Apple Inc. sur­passed Microsoft Corp as the largest ever Amer­i­can com­pa­ny when stock mar­ket val­ue is used as the measurement.

Pass­ing the $623.52 bil­lion mark, Apple is seen as the lead­ing influ­ence when it comes to pop­u­lar com­merce and E‑commerce trends and is now viewed by any e‑commerce man­ag­er, e‑commerce ana­lyst or web con­tent man­ag­er of stature as one of the most pow­er­ful com­pa­nies in the US and fur­ther afield.

Speak­ing about the his­toric news, Pro­fes­sor of finan­cial his­to­ry at New York’s University’s Stern School of Busi­ness, Richard Syl­la said, “It is one of those icon­ic com­pa­nies.  When I think about these com­pa­nies, their prod­ucts were used by all kinds of peo­ple and their lead­ers were con­sid­ered geniuses.”

In nom­i­nal terms, if not infla­tion-adjust­ed terms, the clos­ing val­ue of Apple’s stock at the begin­ning of the week was greater than the clos­ing high Microsoft achieved in Decem­ber 1999 which was $616.34 bil­lion.  The near­est rival to Apple was Exxon Mobil which closed some $200 bil­lion behind the tech giants accord­ing to fig­ures which were released by Fact­Set.  It is a gap which is almost the same as the actu­al val­ue of IBM, no slouch themselves.

Apple con­tin­ue to innovate

Apple’s approach to design and tech­nol­o­gy is seen as the bench­mark for oth­ers in the indus­try and their reach extends beyond just tech com­pa­nies.  Mr Syl­la went on to add “Cap­i­tal­ism is cre­ative destruc­tion, and as we speak, some­one prob­a­bly is plot­ting a prod­uct that will steal Apple’s thun­der. Apple will sell a lot of prod­ucts, but I sus­pect their reign as the most valu­able com­pa­ny in the world won’t last for more than a few years. These prod­ucts can be imi­tat­ed and they will be imitated.”

Adding to this, the pres­i­dent of Springer Finan­cial Advi­sors, Kei­th Springer was quick to point out that “Even trees don’t grow to the sky.” While Apple are still grow­ing there will come a point when that growth starts to con­tract and the val­u­a­tion of a com­pa­ny will become too rich to be sus­tained.  Although, as Mr. Springer said “But at this point they’re still inno­vat­ing and pro­duc­ing. As long as they’re inno­vat­ing, I will keep buying.”

Image cour­tesy of apple.