After a $47 billion loss in market value, Exxon Mobil has lost its coveted second place spot in market capitalization to none other than technology kingpin Microsoft.
Market capitalization is the metric by which companies are traditionally defined on the stock market - the total value of all a publicly traded company"s outstanding shares, calculated using share price and number of shares. By market capitalization, Microsoft figures at around $409 billion, while Exxon Mobil dipped to around $401 billion.
Apple, on the other hand, has consistently dominated market capitalization in the past three years, holding the top spot for all four quarters in 2012, 2013, and 2014. In 2011, they swapped leads with Exxon Mobil several times as the energy industry took a heavy hit and technology had an upswing.
Microsoft"s rise to second place means that three of the top five spots are now held by technology companies - Apple, Microsoft, and Google at number four - a change from the same time last year, when Berkshire Hathaway and Johnson & Johnson were in the top five.
Under CEO Satya Nadella"s leadership, Microsoft will likely continue rising for the long term - whether due to global console sales, or Microsoft"s evolving sales and business strategy. In the next few years, as consumer technology companies become more dominant in the public market, there may be some surprising leaps made, both in value and in performance.
Source: Bloomberg