Back in March, Microsoft was over $50 billion ahead of Apple in market cap. That gap was nonetheless huge,
Office Pro Plus, nonetheless it was the closest the 2 had been in that measurement of appeal in decades. The pattern was apparent: I predicted that Apple would pass Microsoft, it was only a issue of when.
Not even I assumed it could be this soon.
Today, Apple has just passed Microsoft in industry cap. Now,
Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2010, the stocks have already been fluctuating very somewhat,
Microsoft Office 2007 Pro, so this might modify before the industry closes. But as of correct now,
Office Home And Business, Apple is ahead, and has long been for your past handful of minutes.
Some publications noted this milestone happened back in April, but that was a slightly distinct metric. That was the market cap to the S&P 500, which uses float-adjusted numbers. Today’s milestone is straight-up market cap: numbers of shares outstanding multiplied by share price.
Of course, just how much this number means is a make any difference of debate. The truth is that it really doesn’t mean that much in terms how strong or weak a company is from a financial perspective. But it is a good indicator of trends, and obviously stock performance. That trend is obviously that about the past five years or so, Apple has been destroying Microsoft is gaining stock worth.
Over those past five years, Microsoft’s stock has been largely stagnant: it’s up about 4%. Apple’s stock, meanwhile, is up some 550% more than that same time frame.
Regardless of how the market closes nowadays, you can likely expect Apple marketplace cap to surge forward in the coming days. A week from this coming Monday is Steve Jobs’ keynote at Apple’s WWDC event. There, he’s widely expected to unveil the new iPhone — and undoubtedly some other things. The mere speculation about what he’ll unveil will fuel the price. Microsoft, meanwhile, is losing key executives.
Boom,
Microsoft Office Professional 2007! Fanboys go wild.
Update: And as the markets near closing time, Apple is now nearly $3 billion forward of Microsoft.
Update 2: And sure enough, Apple did close the day in advance of Microsoft: $222.07 billion vs. $219.18 billion.