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Microsoft Businesses The Almighty Buck Apple

Microsoft's Stock Market Value Pulls Ahead of Apple's (reuters.com) 119

Posted by msmash from the most-valuable-US-company dept.
Microsoft's stock market value surpassed Apple's and pulled ahead by as much as $3 billion on Wednesday as the Windows software maker benefited from optimism about demand for cloud computing services. From a report: Shares of Microsoft jumped 3 percent, pushing its market capitalization up to $848 billion. With the broad market rebounding following a recent slump, Apple also rose, but less than Microsoft. Its 2.17 percent increase put Apple's market capitalization at $845 billion, just four months after the iPhone maker breached the $1 trillion mark for the first time. Microsoft and Apple briefly traded at about the same level after the bell on Monday, but Microsoft's intraday lead over Apple on Wednesday was more substantial. Further reading: 'This is Not Your Father's Microsoft': CEO Satya Nadella On Helping a Faded Legend Find a 'Sense of Purpose'.
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Microsoft's Stock Market Value Pulls Ahead of Apple's More

Microsoft's Stock Market Value Pulls Ahead of Apple's

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  • This should last... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    About as well as the windows phone...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rolgar ( 556636 )

      I'd be interested to see what percentage of Microsoft's money comes from installs v consumer products. Microsoft probably makes most of their money from companies having it on the server, and collecting desktops to domain servers, collecting seat licenses of $100s of dollars per year for Office, Outlook, seat licenses for various packages, etc. Obviously, every machine shipped by all of the computer makers gives some money to Microsoft, but when you can go a decade between replacements, that drops your annu

    • Microsoft latest line of success seems to be offering services outside of what Apples normal scope. Sure Apple may have a competing product, but it is often second or third fiddle to the company.

      Nearly everyone who I met who had a Windows Phone, actually liked it. However I think its biggest problem wasn't technical, but the fact we suffered too much from the Microsoft Monopoly, and being Microsoft main grab was the fact that all your programs worked in Windows. And Windows Phone didn't run windows deskto

      • Microsoft latest line of success seems to be offering services outside of what Apples normal scope. Sure Apple may have a competing product, but it is often second or third fiddle to the company.

        Nearly everyone who I met who had a Windows Phone, actually liked it. However I think its biggest problem wasn't technical, but the fact we suffered too much from the Microsoft Monopoly, and being Microsoft main grab was the fact that all your programs worked in Windows.

        Most non-technical people probably paid a lot more attention to hype than anything else. Windows Phone was ridiculed from day one. I never used one so can't comment on it's features but it simply wasn't "cool" and as much as we'd like to believe that doesn't, or shouldn't matter- it does... for many many people. When smart phones began to take off Apple was at peak "cool" and Microsoft was at peak "establishment meh" - now neither company is considered cool... they're both "establishment meh". Microsoft

        • It was the only smart phone I ever considered buying because I found reviews from people that hadnt already decided what their opinion would be before getting one.

          Ultimately I decided they were still too expensive for the actual experience. The issue is that all these mobile OS's are still bringing down performance and taking up more and more storage and memory space with each iteration. The phones around the $100 mark today would be an easy buy if you could still run a mobile OS from 8 years ago, but ins

    • About as well as the windows phone...

      Might last longer. Apple is losing it's niche. The Apple phone and tablet used to have the perception of better quality to android (arguable I'm sure) - now it just looks like an uncool old person phone. Apple phone is no longer cool or perceived as better quality.

      Laptops- they've not really had much innovation in a long time.

      Unless they have a new idea or new product I can see their star waning. They've got enough capital to last forever though and still very profitable so they're never going away in o

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You are sorely underestimating the power of the iOS installed base.
        ~1 billion active users.

        • You are sorely underestimating the power of the iOS installed base. ~1 billion active users.

          Android still sells over 1 billion handsets per year even with the flat smartphone market. What do you think that's going to do to Apple's installed base?

        • So, it's 3rd place behind 2.7 billion Android and 1.4 billion Windows users [wikipedia.org]. Seems there's no underestimating going on by the GP. 3rd place OS probably will have, long term, 3rd place capitalization.

      • Apple failed to defend its smartphone monopoly (luckily for everybody) while Microsoft did defend its PC monopoly (unluckily for everybody).

  • This is just as true regarding Internet Karma and Stock Values.

    I guess we'll see some Microsoft Executives unloading their stock shortly.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by 110010001000 ( 697113 )
      What about my Karma on slashdot? Surely that is important and real?
      • It doesn't appear on any official documents so you might have to wander in the desert for a while before you figure it out.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by lorinc ( 2470890 )

      This is the top 5 market cap according to wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

      1. Apple (1091B)
      2. Amazon (976B)
      3. Microsoft (877B)
      4. Alphabet (839B)
      5. Berkshire Hathaway (523B)

      When you realize none of these companies have heavy industries, that's just crazy. Even Apple that sells products does not have any factory. All of their money is made without owning much actual physical matter. How come does a website has more value than, for example, a plane factory? You're right, the global economy is just as meaningful as karma points on th

      • Apple probably has very large amounts of actual matter that they technically own - at least in terms of materials.

        Not to mention Apple has a huge real estate holding at this point due to store locations.

        At some point I heard they were planning to build a fab even, though have not heard much about that since.

        Considering Apple's death is mostly from physical products I think they should be looked at almost the same as a company that owns more factories than they do, Apple is reliant on physical production.

      • Berkshire owns lots of manufacturing [wikipedia.org]; Buffet buys stable, cash-generating companies and that includes quite a few manufacturing companies.

      • Computer geeks understand websites, and make money. Therefore the profitability of, say, Amazon, must be measured by its website.

        Do you have any idea how complicated and far-reaching Amazon's shipping, warehousing, tracking, and packing infrastructure is?

        Computer geeks understand software. Therefore the profitability of Apple must be measured by its software.

        Do you have any idea how involved Apple is in the manufacturing process of its products? Any idea how involved it is in the sale of its products - t

  • Remember (Score:3)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <imipak&yahoo,com> on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @02:19PM (#57716142) Homepage Journal

    Stock values are according to what stock broker's computers think they can buy at in order to sell for a profit, according to a genetic algorithm nobody understands. Prices have no relationship to what the brokers think the stocks are worth, or what the company itself thinks it is worth. There is a slight negative relationship to what the company is actually doing. Real research and new products are more dangerous than playing it safe.

    Although brokers are often thought of as investors, they invest nothing in the companies they buy shares of. They're just buying and selling shares. None of that money is seen by the company itself, unless the company itself sells shares it holds in reserve. Directors selling shares can become rich, but that money doesn't go into the company. Company finances and director finances are kept seperate.

    So what this means is that a computer has decided Microsoft shares will go up in value by enough to make day trading in Microsoft shares highly profitable.

    • I would expect that research would also be playing it safe, if perhaps, research didn't get in the way of the normal course of trading. But I believe I agree with how you boiled down the ocean in the last sentence. Simplicity perhaps is always best. I'll have to check my encyclopedia tomorrow about all those other words you used :)

    • Laying off employees is a reliable way to get a temporary boost to stock prices.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by epine ( 68316 )

      So what this means is that a computer has decided Microsoft shares will go up in value by enough to make day trading in Microsoft shares highly profitable.

      None of these algorithms would work were it not for the boundary condition that many people invested in the market are investing for value, i.e. a future share in the underlying profit stream.

      The second stable semi-stable pool are the people busy hedging their bets to create a stable business environment. A proper hedge is conceptually a moving target. He

  • Clearly MS is in steep decline. They have nothing new of any real value. They have lost technological control of their flagship OS win10 and stumble from one tech failure to the next. Large enterprises (I know at least one Fortune 100 that plans to do this) plan to not ever move to win10, but move to a web-client and at least seriously consider dropping MS Office as well in the process. And the stock becomes more valuable? Are these morons creating the next big bubble?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Um, I don't think the problem is Microsoft, I think the problem is that you don't know anything about what Microsoft does.

      They've seen massive growth in important areas in recent years, such as in cloud computing where they're now the biggest player, or second biggest (depending on which source you believe, but either way there's not much in it) alongside Amazon.

      But they've also acquired GitHub and become the largest contributor to open source products on the planet. They've had a lot of success with develo

    • Microsoft still enjoys significant lock-in with office software, games and OEM control. Microsoft's revenue is still increasing while its operating costs are not. I would not call that steep decline. Maybe later.

  • Wow! A WHOLE 3 Billion?!?

    Color me completely unimpressed.

    By the time this article posts, Apple will probably be back on top.

    Plus, the entire stock market is extremely volatile right now.

    Non-News.

    • Re:$3 Billion for them is like $20 to you and me (Score:4, Informative)

      by Darth ( 29071 ) on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @04:16PM (#57716944) Homepage

      > By the time this article posts, Apple will probably be back on top.

      a quick check on google shows apple is up by $6 billion right now.

      • > By the time this article posts, Apple will probably be back on top.

        a quick check on google shows apple is up by $6 billion right now.

        Yet of course, Apple Hating Slashdot won't make an Article out of THAT; nor even UPDATE the original Article...

        • Yet of course, Apple Hating Slashdot won't make an Article out of THAT; nor even UPDATE the original Article...

          But if we didn't "hate" on Apple then you would be bored out of your mind and would leave. And we would miss you.

          • Yet of course, Apple Hating Slashdot won't make an Article out of THAT; nor even UPDATE the original Article...

            But if we didn't "hate" on Apple then you would be bored out of your mind and would leave. And we would miss you.

            Actually, when I originally joined /. In 2004, I was initially attracted by the fact that there was a generally SUPPORTIVE attitude towards Apple and OS X. As an engineer and log standing Apple supporter and user myself, I found it gratifying that other "techies" recognized the power and elegance of OS X, and so I stayed.

            Then, over the next few years; something happened: With increasing frequency, posters, almost ALWAYS posting as AC, would create posts alleging the MOST ridiculous, over-the-top "Motives" o

  • I have faith (Score:3)

    by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @05:02PM (#57717232)

    Once the leadership at Microsoft green lights the plan to make Windows a subscription only service coupled with the fact that they can't seem to get a software update right to save their f*****g life, that stock will collapse so hard it will create a singularity.

    Apple will likely fall off a cliff as well, ( just not as quickly ) due to the fact that innovation doesn't appear to be in their interests any longer and they have far too many competitors in an already saturated smart phone market.

    • Microsoft has been brilliant in diversifying their income streams. Azure and business cloud services, Office and business software, and personal computing such as the Surface and XBox each got about a third of revenue. Windows OEM sales were actually up! So even if Windows stumbles, well, what, are you going to see Linux finally reach the desktop in 2019? I wouldn't bet on it, buddy.

      https://venturebeat.com/2018/0... [venturebeat.com]

    • Also the earth will eventually tumble into the sun! Or get eaten by it, depending on your point of view.

      You heard it here first!

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