Apple Now Worth More Than Microsoft and Google Combined...wow!

How high can Apple soar? The tech
juggernaut is closing in on $500 per share,
a dramatic psychological threshold that
underscores the company’s stunning
performance over the last decade. How
massive has Apple become? It’s now worth
more by market capitalization than Google
and Microsoft combined. The company’s
latest stock price surge is being fueled by
rumors that a new version of the iPad —
the iPad 3 — will appear next month.
In mid-day trading Friday, Apple shares
were up 0.6% t0 $496.14, bringing the
company’s market capitalization — or the
number of outstanding shares times its
stock price — to a staggering $462 billion,
or nearly half a trillion dollars. That’s greater
than the sum of Microsoft’s market cap —
$257 billion — and Google’s market cap —
$197 billion.
So what’s driving Apple’s sky-high
valuation? Scorching financial performance:
Last quarter the company reported a profit
of $13.1 billion on sales of $46.3 billion. And
of course, Apple is sitting on nearly $100
billion in cash.
It’s hard to put amounts this large in
perspective, but various outlets around the
web have been trying. David Leonhardt of
The New York Times offers these
comparisons:
– With a market value of about $460
billion, Apple is worth more than Google,
Goldman Sachs, General Motors, Ford,
Starbucks and Boeing combined.
– Apple is now worth almost twice as
much as Microsoft (about $258 billion)
and more than twice as much as Google
($198 billion).
– It is also worth more than twice as
much as General Electric (about $202
billion), I.B.M. (about $224 billion) or Wal-
Mart ($212 billion).
– Apple — ranked 35th in the Fortune
500, which is based on annual sales —
is worth eight times as much as the
company just below it on the Fortune
list (Boeing, at about $56.5 billion). Its
value is 20 times as much as the
company just above it (Medco Health
Solutions, about $23.4 billion).
And over at Fortune‘s Apple blog, Philip
Elmer-DeWitt compiles an amusing list of
things that Apple is now worth more than:
– The gross domestic product of
Sweden ($458 billion)
– All the gold in the Federal Reserve, and
then some. ($350 billion)
– All the illegal drugs in the world, and
then some ($321 billion)
– Six and a half years of global coffee
consumption ($70 billion/year)
– More than six years of U.S. beef
consumption ($74 billion/year)
– More than five U.S. Civil Wars ($74-$84
billion each)
– More than 2.5 Apollo space programs
($145-$170 billion apiece)
– Three times the entire U.S. clothing
industry ($150 billion)
– Fourteen National Football Leagues
($33 billion for all the teams combined)
culled from business.time.com/2012/02/10/apple-now-worth-more-than-microsoft-google-combined/