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Microsoft's Stock Market Value Pulls Ahead of Apple's (reuters.com)
Microsoft's stock market value surpassed Apple's and pulled ahead by as much as $3 billion on Wednesday as the Windows software maker benefited from optimism about demand for cloud computing services. From a report: Shares of Microsoft jumped 3 percent, pushing its market capitalization up to $848 billion. With the broad market rebounding following a recent slump, Apple also rose, but less than Microsoft. Its 2.17 percent increase put Apple's market capitalization at $845 billion, just four months after the iPhone maker breached the $1 trillion mark for the first time. Microsoft and Apple briefly traded at about the same level after the bell on Monday, but Microsoft's intraday lead over Apple on Wednesday was more substantial. Further reading: 'This is Not Your Father's Microsoft': CEO Satya Nadella On Helping a Faded Legend Find a 'Sense of Purpose'.
About as well as the windows phone...
This is just as true regarding Internet Karma and Stock Values.
I guess we'll see some Microsoft Executives unloading their stock shortly.
The market cap is a meaningless number, but only in a sense that is more sophisticated than how the number is used. In reality, the various prices paid for company stock of various types, that would allow you to calculate a more contextual number (leaving out all the *really meaningful* numbers, such as you would find in financial statements and annual reports) are kept under lock and key in the big company's main accounting system. Anyone who claims to have those details outside of the company are telling you something less than accurate.
What about my Karma on slashdot? Surely that is important and real?
It doesn't appear on any official documents so you might have to wander in the desert for a while before you figure it out.
Stock values are according to what stock broker's computers think they can buy at in order to sell for a profit, according to a genetic algorithm nobody understands. Prices have no relationship to what the brokers think the stocks are worth, or what the company itself thinks it is worth. There is a slight negative relationship to what the company is actually doing. Real research and new products are more dangerous than playing it safe.
Although brokers are often thought of as investors, they invest nothing in the companies they buy shares of. They're just buying and selling shares. None of that money is seen by the company itself, unless the company itself sells shares it holds in reserve. Directors selling shares can become rich, but that money doesn't go into the company. Company finances and director finances are kept seperate.
So what this means is that a computer has decided Microsoft shares will go up in value by enough to make day trading in Microsoft shares highly profitable.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft.
That's because Chinese drivers may care less about running over pedestrians than in the US or the UK? :)
Embrace, extend and extinguish the stock market?
I don't think Microsoft is the good guy. They are a For Profit company, they will do what will make them money.
However they found out they lost their monopoly hand. Not every device runs Windows, and the device that Runs Windows may not be users may not be using IE/Edge, and they will could be switching to other devices depending on what they are doing.
Microsoft is playing the Good Guy Card, because their old game plan isn't viable.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
For most stock trades you are correct. However market cap is a good indication on the health of the company and its size compared to others.
Stock Traders may not care, but if you are going to do business with a company and you see they have a large market cap, you can probably expect you can deal with a long term business plan with them.
Now comparing MS with Apple, Google, and Amazon is more just grandstanding.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Back in the 1990's people wanted to be the Next Microsoft.
Microsoft is falling into the IBM type of company. Old, Traditional, Predicable. May not be the best, but isn't that bad either.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Wow! A WHOLE 3 Billion?!?
Color me completely unimpressed.
By the time this article posts, Apple will probably be back on top.
Plus, the entire stock market is extremely volatile right now.
Non-News.
Except at Apple.
Spam filtering? I get at least twice as much spam at work on Outlook than I do at home without it.
This is the top 5 market cap according to wikipedia:
1. Apple (1091B)
2. Amazon (976B)
3. Microsoft (877B)
4. Alphabet (839B)
5. Berkshire Hathaway (523B)
When you realize none of these companies have heavy industries, that's just crazy. Even Apple that sells products does not have any factory. All of their money is made without owning much actual physical matter. How come does a website has more value than, for example, a plane factory? You're right, the global economy is just as meaningful as karma points on the internet.
Video of some good progressive thrash music
Um, I don't think the problem is Microsoft, I think the problem is that you don't know anything about what Microsoft does.
They've seen massive growth in important areas in recent years, such as in cloud computing where they're now the biggest player, or second biggest (depending on which source you believe, but either way there's not much in it) alongside Amazon.
But they've also acquired GitHub and become the largest contributor to open source products on the planet. They've had a lot of success with developer tools such as Visual Studio code and languages like TypeScript. Contrary to your wholly incorrect statement about MS Office, it's still seeing a lot of growth, helped in part because many companies and individuals have been happy to move to the more profitable Office 365 cloud model.
Xbox is still doing well, albeit not as well as Playstation currently, it's still profitable. About the only area they still have no presence is mobile, but as we've seen recently the sale of both tablets and mobile phones has slowed right down, whilst the growth of PC sales has picked up again, which can only help them.
What rock have you been living under to seriously believe Microsoft don't have anything of value, no new products, and are in decline? It's pretty clear they're not, their revenue and profit both still continue to grow rapidly. They certainly were declining, but the last few years has seen them resurgent, in large part due to their move towards being much more open and their contributions to open source. In fact, one reason Azure has been so wildly successful is because Microsoft have been a major driving force behind current darlings such as Visual Studio Code, TypeScript, and Docker.
You should probably seriously re-evaluate your current understanding of the IT world, as being that ignorant of the industry is fatal for your career prospects - you cannot be that ignore of IT products and trends and expect to have a future in the industry.
Once the leadership at Microsoft green lights the plan to make Windows a subscription only service coupled with the fact that they can't seem to get a software update right to save their f*****g life, that stock will collapse so hard it will create a singularity.
Apple will likely fall off a cliff as well, ( just not as quickly ) due to the fact that innovation doesn't appear to be in their interests any longer and they have far too many competitors in an already saturated smart phone market.
Apple probably has very large amounts of actual matter that they technically own - at least in terms of materials.
Not to mention Apple has a huge real estate holding at this point due to store locations.
At some point I heard they were planning to build a fab even, though have not heard much about that since.
Considering Apple's death is mostly from physical products I think they should be looked at almost the same as a company that owns more factories than they do, Apple is reliant on physical production.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Microsoft still enjoys significant lock-in with office software, games and OEM control. Microsoft's revenue is still increasing while its operating costs are not. I would not call that steep decline. Maybe later.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Berkshire owns lots of manufacturing; Buffet buys stable, cash-generating companies and that includes quite a few manufacturing companies.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
They dont have OEM control, nor do they need it. All the big OEMs have at one time or another sold Linux...
No, you're wrong, they still do it, they are just marginally more subtle about it. Try and find a big OEM that sells a Linux system running the exact same hardware as their Windows box. Try and find a big OEM win a configuration menu that lets you select Windows or Linux. You can't because Microsoft contractually prevents it, using the same old thugish license pricing threats they always used.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Correlation is not causation, you think big OEMs aren't offering PCs with Linux because of OEM lock-in
I didn't say that at all, troll. I said that when OEMs do offer Linux, which is quite often these days, they do not offer it on configurations that you can directly compare. Microsoft enforces this because Microsoft doesn't want customers to be able to easily determine the exact Windows tax they are paying.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Computer geeks understand websites, and make money. Therefore the profitability of, say, Amazon, must be measured by its website.
Do you have any idea how complicated and far-reaching Amazon's shipping, warehousing, tracking, and packing infrastructure is?
Computer geeks understand software. Therefore the profitability of Apple must be measured by its software.
Do you have any idea how involved Apple is in the manufacturing process of its products? Any idea how involved it is in the sale of its products - training its own staff at its own brick-and-mortar stores?
Also the earth will eventually tumble into the sun! Or get eaten by it, depending on your point of view.
You heard it here first!