The battle for most valuable company in the world is a neck and neck race between Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. For now, Microsoft has lost its top spot to Apple. Amazon has been part of the close race for the top but has fallen back significantly in the last few months. Facebook and Alphabet (Google’s parent company), though huge and successful companies, are not significantly behind in overall market value.
As recently as the first half of last year, Microsoft wasn’t in the running, but managed to surge up to take the top spot at the end of 2018. But both Microsoft and Amazon have taken a hit recently, leaving the space open for an Apple comeback.
Microsoft’s recent success is credited to its moving Office programs into a more web-based platform to compete with the offerings of Google and others, a renewed focus on cloud computing (in which is now second only to Amazon), its abandonment of its failed experiment of Windows-based mobile devices, and of course the continued domination of Windows as the operating system for personal computers.
In the long-run this development may not be quite as significant as it may seem. Valuations can swing back and forth. It’s the over-arching trend that matters most. And on that count, the jury is still out.
