Apple’s No Longer The Biggest Tech Company In The World

Another bad news for Apple.  Besides its stock sliding mostly because investors don’t think Apple’s iPhone will keep rising in sales, it is not now more the most valuable company in the world by market capitalisation. Its tech rival Alphabet (Google’s parent company) overtook it yesterday in trading and is now worth about $500b/100tr Naira as against Apple’s $494b/98tr Naira. A more than 2% fall in Apple’s stock price to $90.32 at the close Thursday compresses the value of Apple – once the most valuable company in the world by far – to $494.8 billion. That makes it second fiddle behind Google parent Alphabet at $499.9 billion.

Shares of Apple have been in freefall this year, dropping more than 14%, amid the company’s disappointing first-quarter results. It’s the second time this year Alphabet’s market value has surpassed Apple’s. Apple has gone from being a lift for the market to a huge anchor and it was one of the biggest pressures on the Dow Thursday. Investors have watched $275 billion in market value vanish from Apple since it peaked in early 2015 according to a report in  USA Today .

Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft (all tech companies)  are now the three biggest companies in the world by market capitalisation with Exxon Mobil and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway coming in the fourth and fifth place respectively.