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Microsoft Is Now More Valuable Than Alphabet (cnbc.com)
Microsoft has surged 40 percent over the past 12 months to become more valuable than Alphabet. "As of Tuesday's close, Microsoft was worth $749 billion and Alphabet's market capitalization stood at $739 billion," reports CNBC. From the report: Microsoft's latest rally has been sparked by growth in its cloud computing business, which is bigger than Google's though it still trails Amazon Web Services. In March, Microsoft reorganized its Windows and Devices Group and moved its engineering resources into other units, including one focusing on cloud and artificial intelligence. Both Microsoft and Alphabet beat analysts' expectations in the first quarter. Microsoft still trails behind Apple's market valuation of $923 billion and Amazon's $782 billion market cap.
Comparing Microsoft to Google is embarrassing. Google makes much of its revenue from ads, Microsoft is extremely well rounded tech company selling a OS, Azure, Xbox, Office Suite, Cloud services, and hardware. Now comparing Apple to Microsoft would be a much more equal comparison.
Then I learned that Apple reported net income of 50B annually recently.
Apparently, marketing works. They probably have the highest markup margin in tech.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
According to cocaine nose jobs from WallStreet?
(Sorry, I've never been convinced by the stock market - to me it's one enormous speculation).
Then I learned that Apple reported net income of 50B annually recently.
They've been around that number for the last three years. Please do keep up.
Apparently, marketing works.
Companies don't get to Apple's size without provide a shit ton of value to customers. Might not be value to you but it definitely is value to a lot of people and it sure as shit isn't just marketing.
They probably have the highest markup margin in tech.
No they do not. It's not at all uncommon for software companies to have higher margins than Apple. Microsoft routinely has higher net margins than Apple. On average around 5% higher which is a HUGE amount.
That's slightly less wrong than the original dumbass, but still rather out to lunch.
In very simple terms stocks are just a representation of ownership. If I start a business, I own 100% of the stock. If I then decide I would like some cash instead of ownership, I can sell you 50% of my stock. Now you and I own an equal share of the business. If the business earns a profit, we each get 50% of the profit (this is known as dividends). When a major business decision needs to be made, we each get an equal say. If the business gets bought up by an outside entity, we split the price of the sale. Etc.
Of course each of us is free to further sell our one half to as many people as we like. And if we agree to it together, we can split our shares to slow for a finer grain of subdivision. This is where the other guy was confused. If you and I each own 50% of 1000, worth $100 each, we can agree that we each own 50% of 10,000 worth $10 each. The number of shares doesn't affect the goal value of the company, nor does it have anything to do with debt; it only affects the unit price of the stock.
I'm no expert, but does issuing more shares not just mean you are more in debt?
No. Debt is a different thing. Shares are not a loan, they are a percentage ownership in the company. When you issue stock for sale you are literally selling a portion of the company. Nothing is being loaned. Debt holders typically get repaid before anyone else. Equity holders typically get paid last.
That's not to say that the new owners won't expect a return on their investment but the expectation is that this will come from company growth without a fixed timeline or cash outlay. Generally speaking equity is usually more expensive than debt because the risk to the investor is higher. Research "cost of capital" if you want to understand more.
Aren't shares essentially taking a mortgage on your company, but you do not even have to pay anything back, beyond empty promises.
No they aren't like a mortgage at all. The new owners will expect a return on their investment, this will come in the form of a growing company profits. If the company doesn't deliver those profits at some point the stock price will plunge and the company will either be sold/liquidated or will be unable to raise additional capital. If the company cannot raise capital and isn't profitable then they will go bankrupt.
To be fair, you're comparing a software company to a hardware one.
No I am not. Apple is a software company at its core. No less an authority than Steve Jobs himself has said so publicly. Not a traditional one to be sure but they don't actually make any of the hardware they sell so they by definition cannot be a hardware company. A company is what it makes and for all practical purposes the only thing Apple actually makes themselves is software. They design some of the hardware but that's not the same thing.
According to Business Insider,
Apple : 63% of the revenue come from iPhone Sales (Hardware), 11% from iPad (Hardware), 11% from Mac (Hardware) and 5% from other product (Hardware). Only 11% are from services (software). So it's 89% Hardware and 11% Software.
Microsoft : 11% are from XBox (Hardware) and 5% are from Surface. Then there's 28% from Office Products (Software), 22% from Windows Server & Azure (Software), 18% from others (Most of it is Software), 9% from Windows (Software), and 7% from Ads (Software). So it's 16% Hardware and 84% Software.
I stand my point.
Elok
It is not just older vs newer evil, these companies have different evil based on their business model.
Apple is a hardware company, their evil is planned obsolescence
Google is an advertising company, their evil is invasion of privacy
Microsoft is a software company, their evil is proprietary software lock down
Amazon is an online shopping company, their evil is destroying the local economy