Microsoft became the world’s third trillion dollar company, for a second
Share
This week Microsoft became the third ever US company to achieve a 13-digit valuation, joining the ranks of Apple and Amazon.
If not for only a brief moment, during Wednesday’s NSADAQ extended trading Microsoft became one of three companies ever to crack the trillion dollar valuation.
At 9:55 am (GMT -4) Microsoft’s stock reached US$130.53 (AU$185.74) per share on, approximately 4% higher than the day prior. The share price excitement was driven by a particularly well-received quarterly earnings report, which greatly exceeded market expectations.
According to Microsoft, this quarter its revenue jumped 14% to $US30.6 (AU$43.54) billion – much of which it attributes to its commercial cloud offering. In recent years, the software company has been pushing its cloud offerings, particularly within business use of its Azure, Office 360 and LinkedIn products.
“Demand for our cloud offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $US9.6 billion this quarter, up 41% year-over-year,” says chief financial officer at Microsoft, Amy Hood.
Microsoft’s reign was short-lived, however, as within hours the company’s stock fell back to US$129.35 (AU$184.07), leaving it with a measly market value of only US$992 billion.
Apple and Amazon are the only other two companies to have achieved a 13-digit market valuation, although only for a brief moments also. Apple, at the ripe age of 42, became the first to reach a US$1 trillion in August of last year; Amazon followed, at 24 years of age, in early September. Notably, other technology behemoths including Alphabet (Google) and Facebook have yet to break through the trillion dollar valuation ceiling.
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has overtaken Apple in terms of market value. Back in November of last year Microsoft shares drove the company’s market valuation to US$812.93 billion, usurping Apple – valued at US$812.60 billion at the time – as the world’s most valuable company. But only for a moment. The trading day ended with Apple shares roughly $6 above Microsoft’s.
According to the ABC, today Apple is worth $US981 billion and Amazon $US945 billion – which is AU$1.4 trillion and AU$1.3 trillion respectively, so the tech giants are still trillionaires in our eyes.
Further Reading:
