A record that has stood for over 10 years has finally been broken. Back in 1999, Microsoft achieved a market value of $620.58 billion, during the dot-com boom when tech companies and anything connected to the Internet was all the rage. Lots of tech and Internet businesses launched IPOs and later saw their values drop drastically. Sound familiar?
Today, Microsoft"s market value has gone down to "just" $257 billion. Today, another tech company, and one of Microsoft"s biggest rivals, has broken Microsoft"s market value record. The Associated Press (via Yahoo) reports that Apple"s stock surged up today to close at $665.15 a share.
That puts Apple"s market value at a whopping $624 billion, eclipsing Microsoft"s record and technically making Apple the most valuable company of all time (the numbers don"t take inflation into account).
While Apple"s stock was down for much of 2012, its price has gone up recently as investors are anticipating the launch of the iPhone 5 sometime in mid-September and possibly a seven inch version of the iPad later this fall.
Even though Apple is technically the most valuable business in the history of man, some financial analysts believe Apple"s stock price could go higher. In a poll of 38 analysts, FactSec claims that they predict the average price target for Apple"s stock will be $745.80.
Source: Associated Press on Yahoo
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