Google steals Apple’s crown as the most valuable tech company in the world – kind of
Google has quietly passed Apple as the most valuable technology company in the world, but no one noticed until now.
Technically, Apple is still well ahead of Google in terms of market capitalisation; with a market cap of $378bn compared to Google’s $286bn.
However, according to the Wall Street Journal the less-often considered enterprise value of the companies is significantly different.
If you ignore Apple’s $145bn and Google’s $45 billion of net cash in the bank, Google’s enterprise value sits at $241bn, $8bn more than Apple.
This, explains the WSJ, is like buying a house for $378,000 and finding $145,000 of cash lying on the floor, meaning all you really paid was a net $233,000.
Overall, the enterpirse value of a company reflects the underlying value of the its actual operations