After a brief period where Apple regained its title as the world’s most valuable company, for those who are keeping score, the latest news is that Microsoft has ended the week once again on top, ahead of Apple, Amazon and Google.
According to NASDAQ, the current market cap for the 4 companies are:
| Market Cap ($ Bil) | |
| MSFT | 811.3 |
| AAPL | 804.0 |
| AMZN | 779.8 |
| Goog | 761.3 |
Apple briefly regained the title of the world’s most valuable company on the 6th February after losing it in December last year, but recent estimates of only 71.7 million iPhones sold in Q4 2018, a 7.7 decline YoY, and news of ever-lengthening iPhone replacement cycles (around 4 years now) and that companies are trying to move their monetization efforts out of the app store, undercutting Apple’s services strategy, appears to have hit the renewed optimism which surrounded the company. The company was of course also hit by two high profile privacy issues which undermine its major privacy marketing push, which may have a further knock-on effect on its sales in the future.
Amazon’s difficulties, surrounding their founder Jeff Bezos and Pecker, are of course well publicised, suggesting the company could see a rebound once the news dies down. The company’s share price is down more than 4.5% over the last 2 days.
Google’s share price is also down significantly since its earnings 4 days ago, despite record results, following concerns that Facebook and Amazon were diverting advertisers to their own vertical advertising channels.
After cratering somewhat following earnings on the 31st January, Microsoft appears to have made a good recovery, with its share price around the same as it was just before earnings. That earnings report was of course not spectacular, with no records broken, but Microsoft did appear to be a relatively safe and sedate place to park your money in these uncertain times. The news is particularly timely as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has just celebrated his 5th year as CEO, and is credited for pivoting the company in a rather spectacular fashion.
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