Microsoft Passes Apple To Become the World's Most Valuable Company

Microsoft passed Apple in market cap on Friday, making it the world's most valuable publicly-traded company, after Apple missed earnings expectations on Thursday. From a report: As of 10:30 a.m. ET Microsoft had a market cap of $2.45 trillion while Apple's stood at about $2.41 trillion. Apple reported revenue that fell short of Wall Street expectations during the company's fiscal fourth-quarter on Thursday, a result of supply chain constraints. CEO Tim Cook told CNBC's Josh Lipton the revenue shortfall is estimated at $6 billion, but he expects worse supply chain issues in the December quarter. iPhone sales at the company were up 47% year-over-year but also fell short of analyst expectations. The company's fourth-quarter only included a few days of iPhone 13 sales. Microsoft beat revenue expectations during its fiscal first quarter, which climbed about 22% year-over-year. That was the fastest growth since 2018, CNBC previously reported.

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[Ostracus]

Aaaaand what do you think cloud computing runs on? Plus Taiwan isn't the only country one has to worry about. [youtu.be]

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[nomadic]

Can you find a couple of marines cowardly enough to team up on an elderly person?

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[Anonymous Coward]

The 1% who control 99% of the wealth are unwilling to work, so why not the rest of us?

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[NFN_NLN]

Biden is the greatest president that ever lived. Need proof?
Everyone is so flush with cash they keep buying everything up. They can't even restock the shelves fast enough, that's how great the economy is!

Bare shelves Biden says: buy'em out kiddos.

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[NFN_NLN]

Don't believe me... believe CNN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

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[smooth wombat]

I love how Trump pumped $7.8T into the economy in four years, and Biden has put in about $1.2T in the first 10 months of his Presidency, but sure, somehow inflation is Biden's fault.

You shush now. Don't be putting out them thar facts like how that there debt ceiling expansion is to pay for the con artist's wild ass spending. That don't sit well with those folks to be told the truth.

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[fustakrakich]

The fed is independent of Trump/Biden, doesn't even know they exist. It is still dumping 120 billion a month into Wall Street, so it is silly to discuss any market phenomenon right now, it's all funny money, but get it while it's hot, you too can be a multi-billionaire if you time it right.

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[JBeretta]

The fed is independent of Trump/Biden, doesn't even know they exist. It is still dumping 120 billion a month into Wall Street, so it is silly to discuss any market phenomenon right now, it's all funny money, but get it while it's hot, you too can be a multi-billionaire if you time it right.

If you think the Federal Reserve is independent of the Executive Branch, then you are a legitimate idiot.

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[fustakrakich]

Compared to the fed, the executive branch is entirely ceremonial. It's policies didn't change when Biden became president. The financial industry dictates monetary policy.

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[TomGreenhaw]

It wasn't just Trump's spending that triggered inflation, his policies were even worse. Trump era tariffs, MASSIVE Tax cuts, slamming immigration doors shut to low wage workers, and almost 0% prime lending rate with low unemployment are major root causes.

Trump had his pedal to the metal the whole time. Nothing Biden has done has had time to do more damage, but he is sustaining those policies and fighting to spend more.

Both parties are fiscally irresponsible. The Democrats give away everything to the po

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[nomadic]

Weren't you all whining about how much inflation would occur with the last COVID relief bill? If you were wrong then, why should we believe you now?

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[leptons]

Nobody who can't afford to lose the money puts their money in the stock market.

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[fustakrakich]

The stock market is just a government funded casino (120 billion a month), house always wins

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[arglebargle_xiv]

It's also completely imaginary value, a stock market valuation is just someone's guess at how big a number someone else can imagine as a company's worth. You get points for inflating your lot's imaginary value more than someone else can inflate a different lot's imaginary value, but that doesn't put food on the table for everyone in the US who's living paycheck-to-paycheck. So the rich get richer, at least in fantasy money, while the poor get poorer, in real money [pewresearch.org]. And that second lot now includes the mi

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[vux984]

Just work hard and keep your money on cash and you will be fine.

Worst... advice... ever.

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[NFN_NLN]

> Just work hard and keep your money on cash and you will be fine.

You might be able to squeak by in the past like that. But governments are printing money like crazy. They doubled the money supply during COVID.
Inflation is already here, the question is how long will it last and how aggressive.

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[leptons]

boo hoo, poor little apple fanboi

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[Joce640k]

Microsoft didn't pass s**t, Apple fell behind.

How is that different?

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[NFN_NLN]

What supply chain issues?

This is a demand side issue not a supply side issue. If Tim Cook had watched CNN he would know basic economics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Alternative story title

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Giant hateful turd become more valuable than other giant hateful turd.

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[gweihir]

Indeed. Screwing over your customers apparently pays really well.

Apple is down because they make stuff

[SuperKendall]

The reason Apple has dropped more than Microsoft, is because Apple makes more real stuff, therefore is more affected by shortages.

Microsoft still makes mostly just software with a handful of devices, so they can carry on as they are.

In the long run though the company making real world products is probably more valuable.

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[schwit1]

China makes stuff for Apple.

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[RotateLeftByte]

China makes stuff for Microsoft

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[ichthus]

China makes stuff for Apple.

China takes stuff from Apple.

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[thegarbz]

In the long run though the company making real world products is probably more valuable.

Why would you say that? You think a company that makes stuff that lasts quite a while is more valuable than a company that builds something and charges customers a continuous subscription generating an ongoing revenue stream? Just how many people don't give a shit about the latest iPhone, or skipped the prev gen Macbook Pro entirely?

Don't discount the "service" industry. Nothing will make you reconsider what in life you find more valuable than looking at a shiny Apple toy in one hand, and the phone number t

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[dfghjk]

"Absolutely, because other companies can also easily make software that charges a continuous fee, and it's super easy to un-subscribe from one and pick up another."

Right, which is why Microsoft has struggled to be successful. It's just too easy to be better than Microsoft at developing software.

"Making actual shipping hardware that works well is a whole different ball of wax. It makes competing against Apple much harder."

Does it though? It may sound reasonable to a tribalist like you, but it makes no sens

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[thegarbz]

Absolutely, because other companies can also easily make software that charges a continuous fee

Correct. It's easy. Which is precisely why Microsoft is not valuable, does not make billions every year, Linux is the most popular OS, and every company has their own cloud and there are in no ways 2 mega companies out there providing these services to everyone.

If this post reads as sarcasm you are right. It is sarcasm. I feel like I have to point this out to you specifically since honestly I question your mental capacity after you wrote your post, a post that is disproven so simply by the profit being made

Re:Apple is down because they make stuff

[fropenn]

A big chunk of Apple's revenue in the most recent quarter was services, around $18 billion (which is more than Mac and iPad revenue combined). It is still less than their revenue from iPhone sales in the same quarter, which was around $39 billion. Increasingly, Apple is seeing its devices as a way to sell services so I expect Apple's services revenue to continue to climb in the coming years.

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[dfghjk]

"In the long run though the company making real world products is probably more valuable."

In the long run both companies can be valueless. Speculating on the future value of either company, especially for a hyper-partisan like you, is meaningless. Cloud computing services are "real stuff".

I don't know why everyone is so excited

[wakeboarder]

about 1Trillion$ companies. Most of them extract every dime they can (like a good company should) using their monopolistic\oligopolistc practices. I would be more excited about a development of the government reigning some of their power in. And 30% cut for an eCommerce store is ridiculous, if there were multiple app stores to chose from you could bet the price would be lower.

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[phantomfive]

I don't know why everyone is so excited about 1Trillion$ companies

Not everyone is excited. People who own stock in those companies are excited. Which include a lot of people on Slashdot and in America.

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[dfghjk]

"Most of them extract every dime they can (like a good company should) ..."

The mere fact that you would accept that a "good company" should do this is at the core of the problem. "Good" companies should NOT do this. A good company does not employ scorched earth business practices, but the blink belief in the preeminence of capitalist ideals leads people to accept otherwise.

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[wakeboarder]

It should have read (like a 'good' company should). Sorry

Not really a surprise

[LynnwoodRooster]

MSFT has about twice the net profit margin of Apple, and it's revenue is much more diversified (Apple's is about 80% from the iPhone and iPhone-dependent products).

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[dfghjk]

I'm afraid you might be offering a bit too much basic perspective on this topic. Objectivity is /.'s holy water, it burns.

Dark times

[gweihir]

When a 2nd rated software company that can neither do good engineering nor has any respect for its customers gets to be this big then there is something fundamentally wrong.

I don't get why we let it happen again.

[DutchDopey]

I really don't. We know MS will destroy innovation, destroy perfectly fine innovative businesses as they are doing and have done so in the past, steal that market with their existing market power. And when they have it, they will drop any interest.