Microsoft closes at $1 trillion valuation for the first time ever

While Amazon’s and Google’s revenue growth has disappointed, and Apple’s revenue actually dropped more than 5% YoY, Microsoft has been firing on all cylinders, and today has been rewarded for the first time with a trillion dollar valuation at the closing bell.

Microsoft first hit a trillion dollar valuation in after-hours trading Wednesday last week after Earnings, and again briefly yesterday during intra-day trading.  Today, however, was the first time it was official after trading ceased at the end of the day. After Apple, Microsoft is only the second US company to achieve this – while Amazon did briefly enter the trillion dollar club this was only during intra-day trade and the company was unable to maintain the valuation till the end of the day.

While most will attribute this to Microsoft’s cloud strength, Microsoft has been in a fortunate position that all their business divisions have delivered strong results of around $10 billion in revenue each.

Some may say this has been due to judicious pruning by Satya Nadella, who has been ruthless about divesting Microsoft from failing ventures and otherwise cutting costs in areas which are not profit centres.

Microsoft, of course, professes not to care about their market cap, saying it was not a metric the company paid attention to.