Back in March, Microsoft was about $50 billion forward of Apple in market place cap. That gap was nevertheless enormous,
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, 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 absolutely was only a issue of when.
Not even I assumed it would be this soon.
Today, Apple has just passed Microsoft in market cap. Now, the stocks have been fluctuating quite a bit, so this could adjust before the marketplace closes. But as of correct now, Apple is forward, and has become for your previous handful of minutes.
Some publications documented this milestone occurred again in April, but that was a somewhat diverse metric. That was the market cap around the S&P 500, which uses float-adjusted numbers. Today’s milestone is straight-up marketplace cap: numbers of shares outstanding multiplied by share price.
Of course, just how much this number means is a matter 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 pattern is obviously that above the previous five years or so, Apple has been destroying Microsoft is gaining stock price.
Over those past five years, Microsoft’s stock has been largely stagnant: it’s up about 4%. Apple’s stock,
Microsoft Office 2007, meanwhile,
Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, is up some 550% more than that same time frame.
Regardless of how the marketplace closes nowadays, you can likely expect Apple marketplace cap to surge ahead in the coming days. A week from this coming Monday is Steve Jobs’ keynote at Apple’s WWDC event. There,
Office Pro Plus, 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! Fanboys go wild.
Update: And as the markets near closing time, Apple is now nearly $3 billion ahead of Microsoft.
Update 2: And sure enough,
Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, Apple did close the day in advance of Microsoft: $222.07 billion vs. $219.18 billion.