Shares of Apple Inc. today opened up $13.64, or 7.82% at $188.00 to set a new all-time intraday high and pass the market values of both IBM and Intel.
Apple’s market value currently stands at $163,814,662,910.
For reference, some selected current market values:
• Microsoft (MSFT) – $290,326,101,760
• Google (GOOG) – $206,137,075,350
• Apple (AAPL) – $163,814,662,910
• Intel (INTC) – $156,278,400,000
• IBM (IBM) – $154,610,255,550
• Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) – $133,260,024,780
• Disney (DIS) – $67,680,019,880
• Dell (DELL) – $64,241,243,920
• Sony (SNE) – $45,994,645,800
• Yahoo! (YHOO) – $40,641,873,724
• Amazon (AMZN) – $39,037,267,570
• Adobe (ADBE) – $27,031,152,680
• RealNetworks (RNWK) – $998,960,040
• Napster (NAPS) – $152,192,000
AAPL quote via NASDAQ here.
MacDailyNews Note: “I am putting a sell on Apple, the company that created the iPhone,” Laura Goldman, investment advisor, LSG Capital, May 21, 2007. AAPL closed at $111.98 that day. Apple has risen 67.9% since Goldman’s “sell” recommendation.
Wow! Google and Microsoft are next
Apple now worth more than IBM and Intel
OK folks
A raise of hands who thinks Apple is ripe for a stock price adjustment down to something a bit more realistic?
I predict a downturn to more realistic levels AFTER the holiday buying season. Along with a US recession.
Hey, stock can\’t be doing this, it\’s rising on speculation, not real value. A adjustment is coming. Just don\’t be holding the bag when it happens.
Take some profit that you need and gamble with what you can lose.
Where is about Cisco on the list?
Where is GM on that list?
Stock Guy, I agree. It will come down a bit eventually, although, your thoughts on a recession look unlikely in the near term
Stock Guy:
I agree, but I keep on divesting my portfolio and end up wishing I had not.
Just remember, Apple has huge costs.
So many high priced Apple Stores with lots of employees which Dell doesn\’t.
Then they are selling much less hardware than Dell and HP per quarter.
So that leaves small devices, like iPods, which will sell well for the holidays but after than NOTHING.
Sure the 15 billion in cash is helping keep the stock price above average, but more than Intel? Getting close to the two giants Microsoft and Google?
Something is wrong here, it\’s all speculative and a adjustment downward is going to happen.
Remember stock is only worth as much as someone is going to pay for it.
Don\’t get caught with your pants down is all I have to say.
I believe Stock Guy is correct. Speculators can ruin your day. Be careful, folks!
I’m proud to own a part of that.
@sly
“Where is about Cisco on the list?”
Where did you learn English? … Alabama? New Jersey? Try again.
Cisco has a market value of 191.15 billion dollars.
Sorry Stock Guy, but did you read the results?
Apple’s cash pile has nothing to do with it. The stock is reasonably valued and there is little to suggest that there are any competitors to match Apple in ANY of it’s product lines, be it computers, software, servers, OS, MP3 players, mobile phones.
Take a bearish line if you want. But short of a major systemic failure or recession, Apple is set to go.
For once the speculation does appear to be built on something. The “iPod halo” appears to be bearing one hell of a harvest. The huge increase in Mac numbers still has momentum.
I reckon it’ll go above $200 before topping out.
Stock Guy, while your conclusions may very well come true, but not because of the reasons you have provided. Just keep saying it will go down though because even a broken clock is right twice a day, then when it does drop for some reason, even if that has nothing directly to do with Apple, you can look like some sort of genius.
Then again, the “Sell Sell Sell guy was in here over a year ago telling everyone to sell it at $50.
Forget Google… I live for the day when Apple is worth more than Microsoft. muhahahahahahahahahahaha
There, I am all better now.
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Pretty amazing!!!!! Even if the stock would drop back in the next 2-3-4 months, we can all agree that Steve Jobs and his people at Apple have done a INCREDIBLE job in the past 5 years. Congrats to all of them. I’m really pround to be in the Apple user.
Hey stock guy, what are your thoughts on google?
LOL Stock Guy, I hope you were kidding….with a market share continuing to grow, an innovative OS release days away, and the hottest cell phone and MP3 players on the market, tons of cash in the bank, wth makes you think that’s overvalued? I’m not a blind optimist, but I don’t see any negatives coming. Apple is staying ahead of the competion and is not making any major blunders, so I see no reason for a significant “adjustment”.
I am long AAPL, but have concerns like ‘Stock Guy’ mentioned. Just because the market cap values it at 163B, doesn’t mean it’s WORTH that much. There is a great amount expectation of growth rolled into that number which the others don’t necessarily have. I’d love to see supporting evidence comparing it to sales/revenue/PE of each of the other companies.
Unfortunately I don’t think that will paint such a favorable picture.
AAPL is a long term success story…there is money to be made in the wide fluctuations but long term it’s a solid company making money with solid product lines, margins and good accounting.
Adjustments will happen (ie $111-112 in late August) and those are buying opportunities cause long term the company is strong.
Stock Guy, I hope you are joking when comparing Dell and Apple just in sales. Remember that Dell has thin margins. That’s the same issue that has sunk many computer companies in recent years. Apple’s margins are much better, so although they sell less units than Dell, they make more per unit. Also, Dell sells hardware – that’s it. Apple sells much more. They are a much more diversified company than Dell.
You may be right – AAPL may be ripe for a pullback. But it’s not for the reasons you cite. It will be more due to profit taking than anything else.
Apple isn’t worth anything. For all the money you smug MAC lemmings lay out for your computers you sure don’t get much. MACs can’t play games or run Zune Marketplace.
Your potential. Our passion.™
@ CheekyGit,
Do you have a problem with Alabama?
You sound like a soppy c*nt you muppet! Jog on son…
@MDN. ” “I am putting a sell on Apple, the company that created the iPhone,” Laura Goldman,” —-
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> Sorry but it just gets funnier everytime I hear it. LOL
@Stock guy. Troll.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> 
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
“So many high priced Apple Stores with lots of employees which Dell doesn\’t.” —– All of which are making lots and lots of money. Troll.
“Then they are selling much less hardware than Dell and HP per quarter.” —— But its all making much more profit per unit than Dells and HP and none of the loss leader stuff. Troll.
I just love these weak trolls. THeir comments are so unsupported that even a stock market dweeb like me can see right thru it. LOL
Go apple go.
en
snip”…
The Company sold 10,200,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 17 percent growth over the year-ago quarter.
“… snip.
WTF are you talking about stock guy? That was just reported. Christmas isn’t here yet. That doesn’t include the iPhones sold.
Well, I have most of my Roth IRA in AAPL, but I have over 20 years before I touch it. With my long-term horizon, and my belief that Apple still has huge upside, I plan to hold and even add to my holdings for awhile. A few dips caused by speculators just creates those opportunities to add. But the warnings are useful, as today is likely not the best day to buy.
Right now, the biggest risk to AAPL is if Jobs should no longer be CEO. That would cause a huge drop in AAPL, even though Apple business would still be firing on all cylinders for a good 2 to 3 quarters after. But AAPL would not fully recover from that immediate drop for a long, long, long time even if the quarterly results are good.
I love Macs as much as the next guy, but a 53 trailing P/E? The stock’s got a cash flow growth rate of nearly 40% per year and more than 30% EPS growth for the next 5 years completely priced in. Unless you think its going to grow faster than that, stay away. The company’s great, and its throwing off cash like nobody’s business, but this is all about a way-too-high multiple that makes this too pricey.
Perhaps some long term thinking needs to be applied here. For reference go to the Long Now Foundation site.
http://www.longnow.org/
(GO AAPL!!)
“Stock Guy” is–in fact–“Stock Boy” from years back, one of the most vocal morons ever to grace these pages.
FACT, “Stock Guy”: Every one of us on these pages knows at least one person (I can personally attest for five) who has been putting off buying a Mac until Leopard (along with Boot Camp) was installed on it.
The numbers Apple showed for the fourth quarter are going to look Lilliputian compared to what’s coming in Quarter 1 and beyond! And THAT we can all take to the bank.
YOU, sir, for all your supposed good intentions are little more than a Cassandra Without Credentials. You know NOTHING, and you’re just trying to assuage your guilty conscience for not buying the bejeebers out of AAPL at $50.
I spit in your general direction and make castanets out of your testicles.
Stock guy – I have to disagree with the employee overhead issue. Dell has more of a problem because they have employees who manufacture their machines. Apple farm their manufacture out overseas. Each store earned 1M more this quarter and is becoming even more profitable. IMHO the Apple Stores are an asset and not a liability and have helped Apple increase their market share and public awareness of the brand.
I agree that the stock price is pumped up. It is bound to come down, probably to 150 in the next few weeks as investors take profits.
Apple’s future is very bright. It is firing on almost all its cylinders. Macs, iPods, iPhone, iTS are performing very well. Leopard will add to those numbers. AppleTV will need a revision or two and probably some more alliances with distributors to really take off.
@Jerry T
Now now, Jerry. Just because Alabama is ranked in the bottom 5 states in terms of education is no cause for you to get your blood pressure up.
http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank.html
So, just lay back on your coach, drink your 12 pack of beer and enjoy watching NASCAR all day.
Remember Apple has a good balance sheet going for itself, over $15 billion dollars cash and no debt. They are but a very select few companies of their size to have no debt. Dell has debt.
Just remember, Apple has huge costs.
Those “huge costs” are bringing even “huger” returns.
So many high priced Apple Stores with lots of employees which Dell doesn\’t.
Apple might have a lot of retail employees but those retail employees are making money, hand over fist for Apple. Again, the “huge costs” of establishing retail outlets is bringing in more $$$ than anyone imagined.
Then they are selling much less hardware than Dell and HP per quarter.
And they are making a lot more money off the hardware then anyone else.
So that leaves small devices, like iPods, which will sell well for the holidays but after than NOTHING.
Many companies would love to sell 10 million copies of “nothing.” like Apple does with it’s iPods and they are still on track to sell 10 million iPhones.
Sure the 15 billion in cash is helping keep the stock price above average, but more than Intel? Getting close to the two giants Microsoft and Google?
Microsoft is lost and hasn’t come out with a new, successful product in years and Google is still a one-trick pony. All it’s money comes from advertising. Apple has a huge arsenal of hardware and software it is selling and keeps producing new gizmos that everyone wants to buy.
Actually Apple at a Market value 50% higher then the current value at $163,814,662,910 is still an undervaluation. Mostly because
1) Apple has no long or short term debt (No debt, no interest to drag on the bottom line.
2) The IP that Apple holds is alone worth over $163 billion
3) Apple Inc. is no longer a Computer company. Yes, it’s main core business is and will most likely be computer hardware and software.
4) Apple Inc. is priming a push into other consumer electronics markets using the iPod as it’s beachhead.
If Apple expands this line of iPhones next year to replace the 8GB with a 16GB and adds a 32GB model along with adding a 3G model next fall. Provided the iPhone SDK rules are being followed expect to see an iPhone/PDA device too with removable SD or xD memory cards.
People dont buy stock because of some magic formula. If that was true then all the stock wizards that told me to sell back at $85 would be right. They told me all the big profit had been taken. I guess they were wrong huh?
People buy stock because they T H I N K it is going up in price, simple as that. Obviously, a lot of people think Apple is going up. I do. I’m holding my shares. Wish I’d bought more back when it back slid to $113. Glad I bought what I did back when it was $13/share.
Rock On Apple, Rock On!
Some posters see the potential of Apple and some don’t. I have bet the farm on AAPL and am laughing myself silly at the stupidity of the skeptics.
Apple will be the largest company on the planet within just a few years. And this will occur not by merely extrapolating its performance on some chart, but because it has top talent, top leadership and the best business positioning, execution and plans of any company.
It is put up or shut up time. My money is on Apple. Time will tell.
So on the “AAPL is undervalued thing…”:
(1) So first off, the debt thing isn’t a big deal at all. In fact, you’d normally like companies to have a little more debt because the tax benefits of debt flow directly to equity shareholders. The fact that they’ve been continuing to stockpile cash IS a little worrysome because it indicates that AAPL might not have enough positive investments to stick its cash in, which could be a sign that the growth is slowing somewhat. But they’re still cash flow positive, which is a good sign.
(2) The IP Apple has? Great. Fantastic. Not worth $164 billion. Again, it makes great products. But these great products have to generate otherworldly growth rates for a long, sustained period of time to justify the current valuation. Otherwise, no dice.
(3) Agreed that AAPL is moving more and more into consumer electronics. But that story’s been mostly true for about 6 quarters now. Do you honestly see Apple growing at more than 35% a year on an earnings basis FOR A FIVE YEAR PERIOD? That’s more than a little nuts.
If you use crazy aggressive predictions for future EPS growth and keep the multiple fairly high at nearly 25 P/E or so, the valuation is barely justified. But those are a set of special circumstances that are very, very hard to justify.
As much as we hate Microsoft, keep in mind that from 1995-2000, during one of the most remarkable sales periods in any company’s history (when MSFT essentially put a copy of Windows and Office on almost every computer sold in the world), the company grew EPS at about a 40% growth rate. You’re asking AAPL to do that over the next 5 years if you buy the stock today. Perspective might be in order.
Apple stock is not overvalued.
Even if it pulls back again in the short term, as it is wont to do, it will increase again in the long-term.
I remember when they passed Dell, people said they were overvalued and it would pull back. And it did, but look at it now.
The same thing was said when they passed HP. Yet now it would take a significant drop to get below HP.
Besides, I think it will go up in Nov-Dec as we approach January and down after Macworld. That’s what it did the past couple years.
Stock Guy is full of tripe. And wrong on many levels.
MW: ‘fear’
@Jerry T,
with your abusive language you prove CheekyGit’s point.
Vlad,
right on. So is my money!
With a P/E ratio of about 52.5 compared with 24 for Intel and 17 for IBM? Thanks, but no.
Stockguy – you’re full of horsh*t. If you were any wiser you’d listen to the conference call(s). AAPL increased guidance for this December quarter – that’s virtually unheard of for AAPL. More importantly, AAPL is not only confident in selling 10 million phones by 2008, they calculate the iPhone will ensure at least 50% growth in AAPL over 3 years. 50% growth over 3 years (lets see, $100K down today, $337K three years from now). Buy, and don’t touch. Think longterm, dumbass.
In the past two weeks of traveling across the US, I’ve randomly met three different people with iPhones loaded with third party software. One was even hacked to work on the T-mobile net.
Apple does not yet support third party software, or ‘un-locked’ iPhones.
What does this indicate?
I believe that because Apple makes most of its profit from hardware, not software, that they have protected themselves by not supporting potentially spurious software, while selling tons of iPhones and iTouches to folks who will soup up their new machines in hundreds of different configurations. Hardcore Windows/PC people are snapping up these little ‘Trojan Macs’ and propagating the truth far and wide: Its a win-win (or Mac-Mac?) situation here, and its only really just begun.
The entire Apple catalogue of hardware/software is vertically integrated for true inter-operability. Halo effect indeed! Here comes Apple’s vision of the “digital hub life style”. All systems “GO”!
The sky’s the limit. Hang on while AAPL arcs into the stratosphere.
Wa-Hooooo!!! . . .
Apple’s forward P/E is only 29.75, so no correction is really necessary or predicatable. For a growing company, this is very reasonable.
I understand that the price will go up and down but it is going up more than it is going down. My question is “What will be next WHEN Apple passes Microsoft?”
Passing big blue was monumental. That was their target when they were working with Microsoft. Now we know that passing IBM has come and gone like a little gas after a good meal. There should be a huge party when they pass Microsoft.
Have a great day.
Apple start to produce your own processor lineup,graphics,memorys,next world: Your own Apple printer and scanner.
Sounds like a great opportunity to shut the company down and give the money back to the shareholders before reality catches up and they go bankrupt.
Pfft, $168 billion? I’m still worth more than Apple. I wipe my ass with $168 billion.
Pfft, $168 billion? That’s nothing. I go through that much in chairs.
I wipe my ass with Apple stock.
@ B. Gates
Bill your accountant called. Your mouth is writing cheques that your bank account can’t cash. Your only worth 56B.
Sorry Bill
@CheekyGit
be more tolerant with people that make typos, do u speak french, dutch, german, spanish, italian, russian, japanese ?
and, i don’t even think that he is from a non english country, he simply made an editing error.
@MegaMe
GM is not on that list, they are not doing well, their market cap is only $21.5b
@all, while i agree that AAPL is not overvalued, i don’t think it’s going to gain another 100% over the next year, i would sell my stock (if i owned any) at around $210 on Januari 15th.
Apple just needs to buy Intel now. Up the price of the chips that it makes that are non-compliant with Mac OS to other vendors, for a year or two, then stop making them..
I’m happy for Apple, and I wish them the best of success.
But let’s not fool ourselves. IBM is a giant. Way huger than Apple could ever plan to be.
Furthermore, they do completely different things. IBM is an innovator on a level that no other company can dream of. Apple makes fantastic computers, media players and other snazzy things, but they’re a far cry from figuring out the human genetic code or tracing genealogy.
Just sayin’
So how amazing do you think the holiday season will go?
Can Apple hit 30 million ipods sold for the holidays?
another 2 million macs?
maybe 3.5 million phones? Remember these are international in a a months time.
These numbers do not reflect Leopard nor the iPhone in Europe. No, this is still going to go up.
just so you know, I sold my Microsoft stock a year after the public offering because I listened to some stock guy. It cost me 3.75 million in potential on a very small investment. Like all stocks Apple will go up and down but they are backing up each quarter with better results than the last. What more can you ask for. All stocks are a gamble, all of them.
And to think Apple’s market value was less than 2 billion when Jobs returned. Unbelievable.
Check this out:
Apple siezes opportunities very methodically.
1. Presently disfunctional market space.
2. Financially inferior market leader or none.
3. Nominal risk, scalable reward.
Once the battery solution clarifies in the next decade, the automobile market is clearly a reasonable target. This grows the company in a GE model rather than the single space Microsoft.
As someone who remembers just how dominant and omnipotent a force IBM was in the computing world in the 1980s, this is truly an amazing achievement. Nice to think that the hammer she threw 23 years ago saw the most dramatic part of its impact today.
While I think Apple is fully-valued, I disagree with StockGuy’s points. You could have made a good argument, but you didn’t. Not even close, really.
<<Comment from: Stock Guy
Just remember, Apple has huge costs.>>
Uhm, duh, but gross margins are what, 33%?
<<So many high priced Apple Stores with lots of employees which Dell doesn\’t.>>
O, those kinds of costs. Ask yourself, do those stores, with their “huge costs” pay for themselves? Yup. And, who has more employees, Apple or Dell? Which one has lots of mfring employees?
<<Then they are selling much less hardware than Dell and HP per quarter.>>
Yes, and if you sell hardware at a minimal profit, is it an advantage to be selling more? Look at Gateway, they sell just as many PCs as Apple, and yet, they are valued at less than 1% of Apple’s value. That’s because they don’t make any money selling all that hardware.
<<So that leaves small devices, like iPods, which will sell well for the holidays but after than NOTHING.>>
Uhm, this is so stupid, need I say anything?
<<Sure the 15 billion in cash is helping keep the stock price above average, but more than Intel? Getting close to the two giants Microsoft and Google?>>
This is nonsensical, the cash isn’t keeping the “stock price above average”! Each share of Apple has about $18 of cash in it. That’s it.
As for one of your giants, Google, why not apply your same critical thinking? What hardware is Google selling? What about all those employees Google is hiring?
<<Something is wrong here, it\’s all speculative and a adjustment downward is going to happen.
Remember stock is only worth as much as someone is going to pay for it.>>
Can I quote you?
<<Don\’t get caught with your pants down is all I have to say.>>
Thanks for the advice! Not.
@Stock Guy (or should I say Laura Goldman)
I looked out my window and no the sky is not falling. If you want to sell Apple stock I’ll take it. I am sure you can get in on the ground floor of Microsoft’s stock but don’t be surprised if you end up in the basement.
Do everyone a favour and don’t give advice.
@Shadow — How about Berkshire Hathway ;-}
” . . . only worth 56B.”
I agree with your point but I don’t think the word only could ever be used in front of the number $56 billion. He’s the luckiest fixed lottery winner in history.
@Acetylcholinesterase
Agreed.
But if memory serves me correct he was once worth over 100B.
While he is worth more than I will every own in my sleep he is a complete failure in my mind. He has also lost more than anyone could every hope to make in one lifetime.
Cheers
Mark, you are correct. If something happens to Steve Jobs, the stock may have a long road to recover. Investment in AAPL is currently an investment in Steve Jobs. However, other than that, Apple is becoming unstoppable.
It’s the competition people should be looking at. Increasingly, there is none. None for iPod (that survives). None for iPhone, and wait till Apple releases the next version. And none for the Mac. Microsoft has shot itself in the foot (the head was too small) when it released Vista. It won’t be able to recover from that. The Zune hasn’t helped them much either. Nor have all the legal issues worldwide.
People should be looking at the competition. As long as nothing happens to SJ, Apple appears unstoppable. From that perspective, its stock has not even approached a high side. There’ll be profit-taking. But the stock will continue to grow. Aggressively. They’re doing absolutely everything right.
@ Charleston and Cheeky,
No mate, I’m nowhere near Alabama. And NASCAR isn’t my thing. I’m more of a footy type bloke.
I just get sick of seeing people make comments like that. They feel perfectly fine calling someone from Alabama, or something. But what if he was from China and English was his second language? Would it be appropriate to call him a chink?
If he was black and using Ebonics, would it be okay to call him a nigger or maybe you’d prefer coon.
Maybe he’s a just stinkin’ Paki.
And if you’re too PC to use those terms, then you ought to leave out all derogatory remarks with regards to one’s race, creed or birth place…
Then again, maybe you’re just an old narrow minded git.
“Remember that Dell has thin margins. “
Dell’s net margins are about 9%, Apple’s 14.5%. Significantly better? Yes. In an whole other league? No.
Compare that to Microsoft with 39% net margins.
As I’ve said somewhere else earlier today, Apple’s long-term destiny is to achieve a valuation of around $350-400 billion at some point in late-2010/early-2011.
The thing that the naysayers miss is the cumulative effect of all those lovely recurring commissions from network operators; let’s say that Apple can sell 50 million iPhones per year, each delivering a conservative $50 monthly subscription to the network. Let’s further assume that Apple has signed a 10% commission arrangement with each of the network operators. 50 million x 2 (years) x $50 is $5 billion a month x 10% is $500 million x 12 months is $6 billion.
Yes, that’s right: $6 billion a year in what is – to all intents and purposes – pure , unadulterated profit. Let’s all try and remember that – in 1999 – Apple reported total sales FOR THE YEAR of $6.1 billion, so $6.0 billion in residual income (which is probably 90% profit) from a mobile phone is a pretty neat trick.
And for people who don’t believe the probability of 50 million units a year: go and look at a story on MacNN (it’s listed in the sidebar) about Samsung aiming to deliver a 128GB NAND memory unit in 2009 or thereabouts; imagine an iPhone or an iPod touch with an open developer SDK and 64GB or 128GB of memory. Want to know where the $500 Apple computer is coming from? I think we can guess. In any case, 100 million iPhones at an average of $349 will yield around $17.5 billion a year using Apple’s accounting rules.
So that’s $23.5 billion just from a mobile phone. Let’s assume that Apple can carry on building on the current success of the Mac – personally, I believe that we may see Apple selling 15 million Macintosh systems a year at around $1400/unit by 2011. That’s another $22.5 billion.
Don’t believe it? Over the last two years, Apple have shipped 12.35 million Macintosh systems and a third of those were shipped in the last six months. In the two years prior to that period (Q1/04-Q4/05), Apple shipped 7.8 million units. In other words, over a long 24-month sample, Apple’s Macintosh sales grew by nearly 58% and – if that cycle were repeated for another two years – the figure for the two years ending in September 2009 would be around 19.5 million units (let’s say 8.5 million units for 2007/8 and 11.0 million for 2008/9) . Rinse and repeat for another two years and the figure could easily be 18.5 million.
To that $46 billion, you could still add $10 billion from straight iPod sales which brings you to $56 billion. Add in $8 billion from the other sources – iTS, software, displays, etc. – and you have $64 billion.
As early evidence of how the iPhone will distort Apple’s finances, one need only look at yesterday’s results and the level of net profitability: Apple is slowly creeping towards a position of generating around 17.5% net profit after tax. So when Apple has sales of $64 billion, they have a realistic chance of delivering profits bordering on the $11 billion mark. Take $11 billion and multiply it by 35 and you get $392 billion.
But all of that assumes that a) Apple doesn’t acquire anybody or b) it doesn’t come out with any other category-defining products and that is a real unknown and not one I would bet against. Eventually all that money – $15 billion and counting – and that market cap either get leveraged to buy other companies (as Cisco have done so aggressively) or the money gets used to build new products.
If you really wanted to know why Microsoft fears the iPod and so singularly tried to FUD it out of existence, these figures tell you why. If Apple is worth more than Microsoft, is more nimble than Microsoft, has a more profitably diverse product ecosystem than Microsoft and more customer loyalty than Microsoft, what – from the point of view of employee/developer confidence, investor confidence and customer confidence – is the point of Microsoft?
“I wipe my ass with $168 billion.”
I think you’re being overcharged for your toiletpaper, Bill.
It’s stunningly amazing how mornonic Jerry T is. Fighting so-called offensive posts with exponentially MORE offensive posts, and trying oh-so-darn-hard to look intelligent.
Go Apple!
Protocol 666a!
Apple Getting Close to Protocol 666a!
Everywhere I look there is only good news for Apple:
Leopold Record Pre-orders!
iMac Sales off the charts!
IPod Sales Still on Rise!
Newton Slate in Development!
Stock Price climbing weekly!
New Stunning MacPro Coming!
Laptop Sales Growing!
Apple market-share over 8%
Yada yada yada ……
All I can say is “watch yourself Mr. Jobs!”
Why?
Well here at MS we have had Protocol 666a in place for the last 12 years, it reads thusly:
“Any competing company which threatens the MS business model by exceeding 10% OS market-share and/or having quarterly revenues exceeding 25% of MS quarterly revenues shall be targeted for elimination for market contention by any means necessary. Said company being….”
Protocol 666a is built into all of our systems and business models and is implemented automatically whenever the offending companies trip it! Apple is getting close! I’m a nice guy though and am formally issuing this warning, “tone down your growth Mr. Jobs, by that I mean your OS! If you value your pretty little candy coated company that is, you haven’t seen us get ugly yet!”
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com