Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is once again the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
Microsoft surpassed Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to become the world’s most valuable public company at the close of market trading on Tuesday. And all it took for Microsoft to assume the top spot was a $300-billion U.S. rout of Apple stock.
After briefly claiming the top spot on Monday, Microsoft shares rose 0.6% on Tuesday, pushing the company’s market value to $828.1 billion U.S. at the close of trading. That exceeded by more than $1 billion U.S. the value of Apple, which has seen its stock price fall throughout November on concerns about iPhone sales. The last time Microsoft’s market capitalization was bigger than Apple’s was in 2010, according to data from Bloomberg News.
A recent stock market downturn has impacted nearly all technology companies. But investors have punished consumer-focused companies such as Apple and Amazon.com the most in recent weeks, paving the way for companies such as Microsoft, which caters mostly to businesses, to sprint ahead. So far this year, Apple`s price per share has fallen 23%.
A decade ago, Microsoft fell behind Apple as computing shifted from desktop machines to mobile devices such as iPhones, ending Microsoft’s personal computing dominance. Attempts to regain its footing by acquiring Nokia’s handset business and releasing its own series of phones proved unsuccessful and led to expensive write downs by Microsoft.
However, the rise of cloud computing has since changed Microsoft’s fortunes for the better. In recent years, the Seattle-based company has invested in data centers and other infrastructure that run applications and store data in the cloud for corporate customers.
Microsoft is now second behind Amazon Web Services in terms of its cloud computing market penetration. That’s insulated Microsoft’s stock from declining consumer spending on personal technology and devices such as smartphones.
