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Which Company Is the Largest?

Posted by timothy on from the it-isn't-robin's-merry-men dept.

Fudge Factor 3000 writes "Apple and Exxon are fighting it out to be the company with the largest market cap. Tuesday, Apple pulled ahead. It is hard to believe a tech company can beat out an oil giant, but is the market cap really the measure of the size/influence of a company? It is certainly the simplest metric to consider. Ars is running an excellent article on how to measure the size of a company. They discuss different metrics such as cash balance, revenue, number of employees, etc."

2 of 378 comments (clear)

  1. Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does it really matter? Honestly, who gives a shit what company is the biggest?

    I only care about the products/services they produce.

  2. effect on the world is a company disappeared by art123 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here is another way to think about it.

    What if the company disappeared over night? How "important" are these companies?

    If Apple disappeared, people wouldn't have their toys and music anymore and people who actually get work done with Apple products (like designers or movie editors) would have to migrate to other platforms like Linux or Windows.

    If Exxon disappeared, the world would have a temporarily huge reduction in the available oil until competitors could pick up the slack which could take a long time in which case the whole world will fall apart (only slightly exaggerating).

    So I say that Exxon is way more important than Apple.

    By that metric, Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle are also way more important than Apple.