Apple's day in the sun as most valuable Silicon Valley company

Stephen Withers
Friday, 15 August 2008 08:21

Opinion and Analysis

Apple briefly became the most valuable company in Silicon Valley when its closing stock price gave it a market capitalisation greater than that of Google.

For the first two and a half years after Google went public, the two companies' shares fluctuated in value pretty much hand-in-glove, although Google always had the larger market capitalisation.

But Apple's share price has recovered much more rapidly than Google's from the plunge in share prices that occurred during the first quarter of 2008.

At close of trading on Wednesday, Apple's market capitalisation was $US158.84 billion, just nudging Google ($US157.23 billion) off its perch as the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

A day later, the status quo was restored, with Google's market cap nudging up to $US158.95 billion compared with Apple's smaller rise to $US158.86 billion.

Both companies, but especially Google still have some way to go before they return to the peak share prices achieved during 2007.

Just to put these numbers into perspective, Microsoft's market capitalisation is $US254.8 billion, making Apple a distant second in the IT industry.

How do Apple's and Google's profits are revenues compare? Find out on page two.