Apple sets record for company value at $621B (Becomes Most Valuable Company in History)

[onehandle]

Source: AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple is the world's most valuable company, ever.

On Monday, its surging stock propelled the company's value to $621 billion, beating the record for market capitalization set by Microsoft Corp. in the heady days of the Internet boom.

Apple's stock has hit new highs recently because of optimism around what is believed to be the impending launch of the iPhone 5, and possibly a smaller, cheaper iPad.

Apple Inc. has been the world's most valuable company since the end of last year. It's now worth 53 percent more than No. 2 Exxon Mobil Corp.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-sets-record-company-value-621b-160238616--finance.html

[trotsky]

1. Too big to fail?

[KamaAina]

2. Yippee! We're rich!

Oh, right, they launder their profits through something called Braeburn Capital (get it? It's a variety of apple, just like Macintosh!), which happens to be located in Reno. Purely coincidentally, Nevada happens not to have a state corporate income tax.

So California's share of this historic windfall is -- bupkis. Meanwhile, Gov. Brown has to go to the voters for additional sales and income taxes just to keep the schools open.

[onehandle]

3. I agree. The laws need to be changed. nt

[ChromeFoundry]

4. So can they thank Microsoft?

Since, after all, it was Microsoft that bailed them out of bankruptcy in 1997 when Apple nearly went belly-up.

One evil empire helps another... everyone else loses.

[onehandle]

6. Who lost? People love their iDevices and Macs. iPads are helping the elderly connect...

...and improving classroom results. Apple is the most admired brand in the world.

Microsoft won, because the feds did not break them up. That's what keeping Apple afloat was all about.

[ChromeFoundry]

8. You have to ask who lost?

The people whom lost their life or no longer have quality of life because of the companies Apple contracts to build their products. The people that live in polluted areas thanks to the lack of environment friendly processes used to build these devices. You and your kids lose because Apple designs products that do not support having a lithium ion battery replaceable without voiding the warranty... so landfill is the supported option. How about Apple being named the 'Least Green' tech company in history.

The agreement was that Apple would drop the "look and feel" long standing lawsuit... It had nothing to do with the antitrust case the Feds and EU had against Microsoft. How would Apple dictate the outcome of a government probe especially when Apple and Steve Jobs were flat out broke?

Microsoft further won because of the agreements Apple made with MS Office for Mac.

[onehandle]

10. So much inaccurate and misleading bullshit there...

...that I'm not going to even bother.

Seeya.

[ChromeFoundry]

14. Because you still have your Apple iGlasses on...

Here, let me help you:

The people whom lost their life or no longer have quality of life because of the companies Apple contracts to build their products.

Chinese workers urge Apple to act on n-hexane poisoning
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/22/chinese-workers-apple-nhexane-poisoning

The people that live in polluted areas thanks to the lack of environment friendly processes used to build these devices.

Apple Cited as Adding to Pollution in China
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/technology/apple-suppliers-causing-environmental-problems-chinese-group-says.html

You and your kids lose because Apple designs products that do not support having a lithium ion battery replaceable without voiding the warranty... so landfill is the supported option.

Retina MacBook Pro 'least-repairable' notebook ever, says iFixit
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228070/Retina_MacBook_Pro_least_repairable_notebook_ever_says_iFixit

How about Apple being named the 'Least Green' tech company in history.

Apple Named Least ‘Green’ Tech Company
http://techland.time.com/2011/04/21/apple-named-least-green-company/

The agreement was that Apple would drop the "look and feel" long standing lawsuit... It had nothing to do with the antitrust case the Feds and EU had against Microsoft.

Aug. 6, 1997: Apple Rescued — by Microsoft
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/dayintech_0806/

How would Apple dictate the outcome of a government probe especially when Apple and Steve Jobs were flat out broke?

Apple was not ruler of the free world in 1997... You can Google or Bing this if you like (does Apple have a search engine yet?)

Microsoft further won because of the agreements Apple made with MS Office for Mac.

This also included a five year agreement that Apple would ship Microsoft Internet Explorer for Mac as the Default Browser on MacOS and OSX.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_for_Mac


I'm not going to sit here name calling with you. I'm just stating the facts. If you want to sit there posting how awful Microsoft and Google are, the least you can be is fair when it comes to Apple. They are no different. If you like the functionality of your iDevice... great. I think the products are very functional. But Google and Microsoft make some terrific products too. There is good and bad with every technology company - plain and simple. You just paint Apple as this wonderful, innovative company that had a saint as a lead man. The fact is, it isn't and didn't. I'm not here to shit up your thread, just placing blame where it needs to be placed.

[onehandle]

15. Yep. Same old misleading bullshit.

Old links, most of which the situations have changed for the better.

A computer repair company whines about losing business? Boo-hoo. All Apple products can be returned to Apple for free recycling, in fact in many cases they will Pay You.

Steve Jobs was broke? When?

'Timing mattered: The company was in the midst of an image-tarnishing antitrust fight over its heavy-handed promotion of IE during the height of the browser wars with Netscape.'
- The feds were salivating over Apple dying, so that they could name Microsoft an official monopoly.

Greenpeace has targeted Apple for using some electricity for their data services, as a PR stunt. Apple is building a 100% green power grid. Greenpeace wants to take credit for something that Apple is doing on their own. Apple's products are the greenest of all. Period.


And as always, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, Dell, Sony, HP... All of them use the Exact Same Factories in China.

Want to be 100% Green? Go live with the Unabomber.

[ChromeFoundry]

16. Thanks for the updated links...

Expressing the true facts...
Oh wait.

Yeah the feds had SO much to gain by spending millions just to rip apart a company.

It's just like arguing with a kid at Toys-R-Us.

[azureblue]

18. more

Office began as a Mac program


The reason MS loaned Apple the dough was what was essentially blackmail by Jobs: MS had stolen code from Quicktime, basically verbatim whole sections, and Jobs told Gates in so many words that Apple would not sue if Gates would loan Apple some money at a favorable interest rate. Gates had a track record of stealing code, copying programs, then releasing them as free, to put competitors out of business and increase MS's stranglehold on the market. Gates saw that Apple was floundering and thought he could steal QT and make it MS's own. Gates always let the companies he stole from sue MS, then use MS's money to protract litigation until the companies ran out of money. Not so with Apple and the looming monopoly investigation of MS. Gates did not account for Job's business savvy and clout.

[ChromeFoundry]

19. Get your facts straight

The San Francisco Canyon Company was contracted by Apple in 1992 to port QuickTime over to the Windows OS. Intel contracted the same company to improve performance of Video for Windows exclusively on the Intel platform. The original lawsuit was Apple Computer v. San Francisco Canyon Company filed in December of 1994. Apple expanded their lawsuit to also include Intel and Microsoft in February 1995... since Canyon wasn't a big enough fish. Apple was hoping for a settlement, and an influx of cash as their cash reserves were nearing depletion.

If Jobs had so much clout, why would they need Microsoft to agree to develop office for 5 more years (because they couldn't afford to rewrite Claris), develop an Internet Browser (because Cyberdog was a buggy piece of shit, and Netscape did not want to take on the investment) that also supported a Java virtual machine (because Sun refused to port JVM to the MacOS).

Funny how you mentioned that Microsoft had a track record for stealing code. Apple OS X is a complete ripoff of BSD to the magnitude of tens of millions of lines of code. Apple ships with SAMBA, right, an SMB/CIFS port direct from the GPL world, to allow a Mac to talk to Windows file shares. When was the last time you saw a Windows or Unix box installed with Appletalk to gain access to an AFS?

[dtmfman]

30. Breaking News: Surgeon General.....(parody)

Dateline Washington, DC:
The Surgeon General has determined that even the touching an Apple product can have serious consequences such as a markedly reduced amount of money and becoming stupid. Story at 11.

[OhioChick]

5. Give them more tax breaks, now!

Apple also does not reveal how many of its employees are based in the United States. Apple and Pfizer are part of a coalition of companies pushing for Congress to give them a tax break on money they have parked overseas, saying that any money brought back to this country would spur hiring.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/keeping-the-number-of-us-jobs-a-mystery/2011/08/08/gIQAFBA8UJ_gallery.html#photo=5

[onehandle]

7. Yep. Laws should be changed. The lobbyist industry should be destroyed.

Elections should be publicly funded.

[FrodosPet]

22. Hail to the Yeah!

I would start running for every office I could if I could concentrate on campaigning without fundraising and never had to worry about being outspent.

[wordpix]

23. oh no, Apple is doing a Romney

[wordpix]

27. "pushing for Congress to give them a tax break on money they have parked overseas"

If that doesn't say it all

My new phone will NOT be an iPhone.

[Tikki]

9. I bought my first Apple computer a long time ago...

I've owned four Apple computers in 25 years (two are still functioning).....just think if they were junk
like other brands I would have bought maybe three or four more in that time period.

I'd say Apple reached this goal with built-in quality...that's something .


Tikki

[DaveJ]

11. Their trackpad design is pretty cool

I do not like the Mac OS, so I'll never buy a Mac, but their hardware is amazing, and it is frustrating that nobody else comes even close to matching it. These things are just common sense that supposedly brilliant engineers and CEO's of computer companies lack.

I looked at a $1.1k PC laptop yesterday and there was no comparison.

Just make a trackpad that works well... people are paying a thousands dollars and the hardware is still built shoddily.

Some companies have lighter laptops, great, but when you try to open the lid with one hand, the whole laptop lifts off the table -- bad design.

Everything decision Mac designers make is deliberate. It just amazes me that Apple designers are the only ones capable of common sense decisions.

[wordpix]

24. not sure if they've changed lately but friend has 2 yr. old Apple & the trackpad drives me nut

You barely touch it to move the cursor, say, to the next line and suddenly you're off the page and onto some other part of the document where you don't want to be. I can't stand it, it's TOO sensitive, so sensitive it's squirrley.

[johnd83]

12. Meh.

I had a Mac at work along side my Wintel. It crashed just as often and was actually harder to configure because everything was so hidden. I have had lots of friends break their iPhones dropping them. I've dropped my Droid at least 2 dozen times (on concrete) with no detrimental effects. The Apple thing is all hype in my opinion. They charge you a lot more for about the same thing.

[DaveJ]

13. I agree, their phones are nothing special. n/t

[truthisfreedom]

17. Completely disagree with your viewpoint. Apple products rule.

Which is why they're the most valuable company in the world.

[wordpix]

25. my friend's Mac also crashes as much as the average PC

I bought a HP ProBook and it rarely crashes.

[Thrill]

20. How about moving production

Of that shit to the US?

[wordpix]

26. are you kidding? The Chinese workers are cheap & all the toxins can just be tossed in the river or

backyard.

[Tx4obama]

21. Kick! n/t

[2ndAmForComputers]

28. This post is being made from something that is not an Apple product.

Likewise for all the past and future ones.

Don't like it? Tough.

[dtmfman]

29. apple is rotten....

I personally can't believe that with the current price of their products...they can't be produced here in America...IMO..this is just another example of making good on slave labor....