“When markets closed in the US on Jan. 29, just $13 billion separated Alphabet from Apple, the world’s most valuable company,” Alice Truong reports for Quartz. “With each passing day, it’s becoming ever more likely that Alphabet, Google’s new parent company, will overtake Apple in market capitalization.”
“Apple reported slightly slower revenue growth for its holiday quarter and provided a weak sales forecast for the current quarter, both below analyst consensus,” Truong reports. “So now it’s Alphabet’s move.”
Alphabet’s “stock has been incrementally climbing in recent days leading up to earnings, which it reports tomorrow (Feb. 1) and analysts overall are optimistic about, projecting a 17% increase in sales year over year, according to FactSet,” Truong reports. “And as Google has demonstrated in the past, a stellar earnings report can add tens of billions of dollars of value in a single day.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Losing the title of “the world’s most valuable company,” will only ratchet up the pressure on Apple Inc.’s management. For Tim Cook, especially, there will be nowhere to hide from investors, especially with the stock doing so poorly. Market valuation is largely out of Cook’s direct control; execution, attention-to-detail, and properly-stocked launches are not.
If you bought AAPL one year ago today, you’re currently down $24.81 per share excluding dividends totaling a mere $1.56.
A theoretical kick in the ass such as being surpassed atop the market cap heap by the likes of Alphabet Inc., no less, might not be such a bad thing.
Whatever it takes to reignite the fire for attention to detail in Cupertino is A-OK with us.
Complacency kills. Execution matters.
SEE ALSO:
Apple regains ‘World’s Most Valuable Company’ crown – August 1, 2013
Apple overtakes Exxon Mobil as world’s most valuable company – August 9, 2011
Meanwhile, retail stores continue to permanently close all over America and existing inventory on the shelves is in short supply. The Dry Baltic Index is at its lowest point in history for transporting goods worldwide and we are worried that a company basing its revenue on advertising is going to be worth more on Wall Street than Apple?
Meah…
Congratulations to Tim Cook:
* For positioning Apple as your own personal gay company and alienating most of the free world in the process
* For vomiting out worthless, forgettable, yet overwhelmingly expensive, also ran products and services
* For botching key launch after key launch
* For hiring, firing, and overpaying all the wrong execs
* For causing the stock to meltdown with your stupid buyback scheme
* For destroying QA at Apple altogether
* For ripping off consumers with your “kill working tech to sell adapters program”
You have almost reached your goal of completely decimating a once great company!
And the successful company’s you’ve run are…?
Did you read MDN’s take? Why does one have to have a resume to comment. He was a bit rude and straight-forward, but it’s his opinion. Come on, Peter. Lighten up.
Actually he did not post… I think…. it was posted as actual fact.
Its wrong fact. That makes it a non factual bitch. And that is just wrong.
Sure did. My statement stands. The point being (that you missed) that we have no idea what Apple’s next plans are being unknown at the moment and making presumptuous claims in and of itself is foolish, especially from a bumpkin who has no idea how to run a company.
There has not been any real downward trend at Apple (more economic than a failure to execute) to justify remarks like that. To assume Apple is going to remain stagnate is a mistake that’s been made time and again. I’m sure posts like that are a good knowing chuckle and hearty laugh to people at Apple knowing what’s in the pipeline we don’t yet.
If only Apple could be better than the other great companies out there – Microsoft, Dell, HP, Samsung.
If only Apple could get some good ideas from somewhere. (Oh wait, they’re the company that everyone else copies. Although I can’t imagine why, since they are so useless.)
If only you would get a life.
Go suck on a beet, MDN!
Say it again, STOCK PRICE IS NOT THE COMPANY.
Pie-In-The-Sky is more valuable to the Wall Street types than real products making real money.
If you see a guy pass up on a $20 filet and pay $50 for a bowl of (alphabet) soup, does that actually make the soup more valuable? Or is it a sign the guy is daft?
Becaise Alphabet is not a one trick pony right…?
Count on Alphabet to slither towards a snatch from Apple on the eve of a major announcement…A dam shame, too.
Time for Apple to release the search engine they’re clearly working on.
YES!!!
I agree with MDN: who really cares which company is the most “valuable”? Maybe Apple should acknowledge that it’s no longer a growth start-up company and increase their dividends in accordance with being a value company? Imagine a dividend of $3 or $4/share! People might actually want to buy it then…
Just a thought…
Growth is a process that takes its time and is not necessarily immediately evident.
after Stve Jobs passed away annalists siad A-ple would no longer grow or show growth … Well they were wrong Apple grew leaps and bounds in its worldwide product sales and placement.
Apple has plenty of growth left in it on so many fronts and in so many unrealized aspects, that these same blind mice will cry again that they have been sandbagged when the growth hits them like a ton of bricks soon enough.
I also believe that Apple has lots of room to grow: just not at the rates it did before. Also, there’s the world economy to consider. This will have an effect on what any company is able to do (both in terms of growth and profits).
Again, I think the best thing they can do with all this money they’re sitting on is give a lot of it back to the investors. The stock would go up AND you’d have an amazing return on the investment…
When Apple was “the most valuable” company on the planet this ersatz title was widely broadcast as evidence of Apple’s greatness. Now when the same title is bestowed on another company the masses claim the title had no significance. Go figure.
That’s fanboys for you! Spin it anyway that makes Apple look good. I said this years ago and still say it, Apple will become like Microsoft as they get bigger and will eventually take the same kind of downturn that we see at Microsoft.
Happens all the time. Great company gets too big and then eventually rots from the inside out. That’s what greed does. Apple is moving from a focus on great products that just work to pure greed.
Greg, I totally disagree.
Microsoft has always said… show me the money. Money is their focus, not you. Microsoft is slowly dying.
Apple is focused on the customer. Apple university was designed to keep the focus on making insanely great products that people love. Steve set that up before he died. No other company in the world has that.
Just saying something you seem to be missing.
Apple started this explosion more customer orientated then Microsoft but they are headed in the direction of pure greed. A simple trip to the Apple Genius Bar will prove that. In the last 14 years (my experience with Apple) their service has declined. It’s still very good service but it’s not the same as it was 10 years ago.
Also the products aren’t as refined as 10 years ago, especially at launch. The “it just works” isn’t as good as it use to be.
Apple products and service are still the best, or at least close to it, but they are trending down as the greed has increased.
Fanboys can’t see clearly because their judgement is clouded.
The best way to win the race as the biggest ever is to ignore everything else. Is Apple’s primary goal to be bigger than anybody else?
Personally, who cares what multiple Wall Street assigns to Google’s earnings or any other company’s ? It is fairly meaningless to me. These are the same “smart guys” that brought the world financial system to its knees in 2008. What does that tell you?
No, I do not understand why anyone would value Google at 32 x EPS. And Apple at 10 x EPS. But if WS wants to value Google’s market capitalization higher than Apple’s, who cares? Does not change my opinion of WS or Google, or Apple.