Microsoft Corporation Technology | Business Software & Services | USA Microsoft Corporation, a technology company, develops, licenses, and supports software products, services, and devices worldwide. The company's Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office 365 commercial products and services for businesses, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype, as well as related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Office 365 consumer services, such as Skype, Outlook.com, and OneDrive; Dynamics business solutions, such as financial management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and analytics applications for small and mid-size businesses, large organizations, and divisions of enterprises; and LinkedIn online professional network. Its Intelligent Cloud segment licenses server products and cloud services, such as SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related CALs, as well as Azure, a cloud platform with computing, networking, storage, database, and management services; and enterprise services, such as Premier Support and Microsoft Consulting that assist in developing, deploying, and managing Microsoft server and desktop solutions, as well as provide training and certification to developers and IT professionals on Microsoft products. The company's More Personal Computing segment comprises Windows OEM, volume, and other non-volume licensing of the Windows operating system, as well as patent licensing, Windows Embedded, MSN display advertising, and Windows Phone licensing system; devices, including Microsoft Surface, phones, and PC accessories; and search advertising, including Bing and Bing Ads. This segment also provides gaming platforms, including Xbox hardware, Xbox Live, video games, and third-party video games. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers (OEM), distributors, and resellers, as well as through online and Microsoft retail stores. Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.
Microsoft (MSFT) Closes in on Apple (AAPL) as World's Largest Wed, Oct 27, 2021 With a gain of more than 4% today in reaction to earnings, Microsoft (MSFT) is suddenly challenging Apple (AAPL) for the title of world's largest company. Coming into today, Apple had a market cap of $2.468 trillion versus Microsoft's market cap of $2.328 trillion. That spread of $140 billion has shrunk all the way down to just $27 billion after Microsoft's gain of $117 billion in market cap today alone. As shown below, Microsoft (MSFT) had a market cap of $615 billion versus Apple's (AAPL) market cap of just $15.9 billion back in late December 1999 near the peak of the Dot Com Bubble. From there, Apple began to gain ground with its iPod and iPhone releases in the early and mid-aughts. On May 26th, 2010, Apple's market cap finally crossed above that of Microsoft and didn't look back for quite some time. Remember, before shifting focus on the cloud, Microsoft's business was struggling mightily. The company's market cap essentially went sideways for 15 years before exploding higher again in the second half of the 2010s as Office 365 took hold. While MSFT was actually bigger than AAPL at various points between 2018 and 2020, Apple's widest market cap margin versus Microsoft actually came in January of this year when Apple was at $2.4 trillion versus MSFT at $1.74 trillion. Since that peak on January 25th, though, MSFT has been rapidly gaining ground. It will only take another small move higher on a relative basis for MSFT to eclipse AAPL's market cap at this point. AAPL reports earnings on Thursday, so how the stock responds to that report will have a big impact on how this relationship stands heading into the month of November.
Microsoft (MSFT) Back on Top of Apple (AAPL) Fri, Oct 29, 2021 Only two days ago as the stock was seeing a strong reaction to earnings, we noted how Microsoft (MSFT) was gaining ground on Apple (AAPL) for the title of world's largest stock by market cap. After reporting inline EPS and lower than expected revenues last night, AAPL is lower on earnings for the fifth quarter in a row. Meanwhile, MSFT has risen 6.5% since reporting top and bottom-line beats. In terms of market cap, MSFT has tacked on $149 billion over the past few days while AAPL has lost $82 billion today alone. Those inverse moves have lifted the market cap of Microsoft above that of Apple for the first time since June 2020. As shown in the second chart below, over the past few years MSFT and AAPL have battled back and forth for the largest stock spot. From last summer until recently, AAPL held significant ground on MSFT, but that is obviously no longer the case. Click here to view Bespoke's premium membership options.
