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Microsoft Could Be First Tech Company To Reach Trillion-Dollar Market Value: Analyst (geekwire.com)
Microsoft's $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn could help the Redmond company become the first technology giant to reach a market value of $1 trillion, or so thinks a notable analyst. Analyst Michael Markowski believes that Microsoft will be able to leverage LinkedIn to become a leader in social media space and the emerging crowdfunding platform. So much so that it will beat Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook in becoming the first company to hit $1 trillion market value. From a report on GeekWire: Here are the market caps of these big tech companies as of Monday morning: Apple: $622.6B, Alphabet: $549.7B, Microsoft: $489.3B, Amazon: $358.7B, and Facebook: $337.6B. "The public has an insatiable appetite for making small bets and purchasing lottery tickets, etc., that provide the chance to make a big profit," Markowski wrote. "The millennials will be a good example. Many will want to routinely invest $100 or even less into high-risk ventures that could produce returns of 10X to 100X." Microsoft, through LinkedIn, will be able to take advantage of this trend because it has a monopoly on the business social media sphere. Markowski predicts that all the big tech companies will eventually build services to facilitate crowdfunding investments.
The last time we had this much debt and high market valuations was last decade. This time around instead of homes the junk derivitives are car loans, payday centers, and other places. I read it is over 2 trillion in bad car loans that are flipped each year as poor folks with low credit like my boss with a 550 score can get a $30,000 truck no money down no problem ... still at %22 interest though. Foreign debt as well in the EU with bonds for countries like Greece, Italy, and Spain.
Add to this the market valuations and a dangerous president (please Republican viewers this is not a liberal rant) who is anti globalization & china and a possible broken up EU with France and Italy possible leaving it if more far alt-right leaders get elected and I predict a disaster!
The only thing keeping us afloat it seems is China and people flipping things and offshoring debt. Once tarrifs come into play again with Trump and a falling apart of the EU if La Penne and Germany's future alt-right leader leave will stop the gravy train and the cards will collapse.
What do you all think?
http://saveie6.com/
I wonder if Microsoft will get a bailout like GM did?
GM got the bailout because they employed a lot of people, and paid "defined benefit" pensions to even more people. Microsoft employs far fewer, and has no DB pension program. Also, nearly half of Microsoft's employees are not Americans.
Note that these numbers are based on market valuation (stock price * number of shares of outstanding stock), NOT profitability or any other measure of financial performance.
Look at stock prices:
Microsoft - $63
Apple - $116 (was $645 before a stock split in 2014)
Google - $807
Microsoft's high market valuation is solely the result of having issued billions of shares of stock. A few years ago, Bill Gates alone owned half a billion shares of Microsoft stock.
Microsoft's high market valuation is solely the result of having issued billions of shares of stock.
That's not how it works. If anything, the more stock you sell the lower the price goes. That's why investors love when a company has a good buyback program.
This said, as a normal investor there are two typical ways to make money in the stock market.
1) buy low, sell high
2) hold a position and reap dividends
Assuming an investment made a year ago:
For scenario 1:
-> return on Apple stock: 10%
-> return on Microsoft stock: 13%
-> return on IBM stock: 20%
-> return on JC Penney stock: 47%
For scenario 2:
-> dividends on Apple stock: 2%
-> dividends on Microsoft stock: 2.5%
-> dividends on IBM stock: 3.2%
-> dividends on JC Penney stock: 0%
Now I'm pretty sure that's not what most people would have expected. But most people don't hold on stock for a long time nowadays, they tend to speculate and over time they lose their shirt because by the time the hype/panic reaches the normal investors, it's already too late. There's nothing wrong with speculation but it's closer to gambling than investment.
lucm, indeed.